Nova Scotia businesses try to reduce impact on the Earth during the holidays

From Christmas to New Year’s celebrations, the holiday season brings with it a “spike in consumption” and as a result, more waste.

Whether it’s increased food consumption, alcohol or gift-wrapping paper – households see an increase in the amount of waste produced.

“The first two weeks of January are really busy, there’s a line up all the time you know,” said Art Tanner, the owner of Tanner’s Transfer Enviro Depot.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The first two weeks of January are really busy, there's a line up all the time you know," said Art Tanner, the owner of Tanner's Transfer Enviro Depot.

The Halifax business owner has been in the recycling industry for over 20 years.

He said every year his shop prepares for a holiday rush.

“During a regular week we see about 250 customers but during the holidays that may rise to about 400,” he said.

There’s more than 75 Enviro-Depots throughout Nova Scotia, according to a not-for-profit corporation called Divert NS.

Each location collects glass, plastics and aluminium, then sorts the materials before they are collected by the corporation.

One of the main programs run by the organization is the beverage container deposit-refund program.

According to Divert NS, since the refund program began over 20 years ago, the equivalent of 97 Olympic-sized swimming pools have been saved in landfill space.

It’s a system that helps reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere.

“If people don’t recycle, where’s it all going to go? It can’t go in our landfills, we don’t have the space,” Tanner said.

Household waste is collected by the municipality and every holiday season there’s a small increase in what’s generated.

“During the holidays there is slight increase of half a kilogram (0.5 kg) more garbage generated per household. This can be accommodated during our normal hours at the landfill and there is no need for extra trucks or operational hour increases,” said Breton Murphy, public affairs manager with Halifax Regional Municipality.

Breton adds that natural Christmas trees are organic and can be collected on the curb during normal green cart collection days as long as they don’t have any ornaments, bags or stands.