SCDES Encourages Residents to Reduce Household Waste and Recycle Right this Holiday Season

Household waste can increase by 25% from Thanksgiving to New Year’s

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Dec. 8, 2025

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (SCDES) encourages residents to give the gift of sustainability this holiday season by making the effort to reduce waste through recycling, reuse, smart planning, and more.

The holidays mean presents and food along with decorations, gift wrapping, parties, meals with family and friends – all of which increase the amount of waste generated by an estimated 25 percent from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). South Carolinians generate about 4.8 pounds of waste per person per day. Applying EPA’s estimate, that amount grows to 6 pounds per person per day during the holidays.

“Waste is too often the centerpiece of the holiday season,” said Richard Chesley, Section Manager with the SCDES Office of Solid Waste Reduction and Recycling. “It doesn’t have to be that way. By making small changes, each of us can minimize our environmental footprints during the holidays to ensure a sustainable South Carolina."

SCDES helps make recycling as easy as possible with several easy-to-use online resources, including the Recycle Here SC mobile phone app. This free app consolidates information for residents on what, where, and how to recycle different items at different locations across the state.

Use these helpful tips to have the biggest impact on recycling throughout the holidays:

Be sure to recycle right. Items placed in the recycling bin that can't be recycled in your local program are called “contamination.” If a load of recyclables has too much contamination, it gets thrown away instead of being recycled. Download the free Recycle Here SC phone app to get rid of the confusion about what to recycle.
Be mindful of hard-to-manage items. Some common items like lithium-ion batteries, electronics, and household hazardous waste can be recycled but should not go into your recycling bin. These items require special handling to make sure they don’t hurt people or the environment. Visit SCDES's webpage about recycling hard-to-manage items or call 1-800-768-7348. Learn about the safe handling and recycling of batteries at BeBatterySmart.com.
Keep it clean. Items you recycle are empty and relatively clean; no liquids, food or residue should go in your recycling bin.
Reduce and reuse. Recycling is supported by reducing the amount of household waste that’s generated and by reusing or repurposing items.

The Don’t Waste Food SC public education campaign, which is coordinated by SCDES, provides helpful resources to prevent food waste and save you money. The campaign encourages residents to prevent food waste and donate perishable food and non-perishable food to local food banks, pantries, and shelters that will be given to food-insecure individuals and families. Learn more at des.sc.gov/dwfsc.

Additional ways to cut back on food and food-packaging waste include:

Meal planning. Only buying the amount of ingredients you need for each dish helps reduce food waste.
Do a head count. Knowing how many people to prepare food for helps reduce the amount of prepared but unneeded food.
Reusable containers for leftovers. Send your guests home with leftovers in a reusable container. This helps eliminate single-use materials like plastic wrap and keeps large quantities of food from going unused and spoiling in your fridge.
Composting. If you can’t donate or reuse your leftovers, another option is composting. Sending food waste to a composting facility or composting at home can improve soil health and structure, increase water retention, support native plants, and reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides.

“We can all take steps to reduce the amount of household waste that’s created during the holiday season, and doing so can help bring us closer to achieving our goal of having 50% of the state’s municipal solid waste be recycled by 2030,” Chesley said. “Proper recycling and food waste reduction also supports SCDES in its everyday mission of protecting and preserving our state’s air, land, water and coastal resources now and for future generations.”

More information about local recycling programs, proper recycling tips, and food waste reduction efforts are all available at des.sc.gov/recycling.

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