Revealed: 5 ways to recycle, reuse or donate unwanted Christmas presents

There is always going to be at least one gift that we receive at Christmas that shall we say isn’t best suited for us. 

Whatever the reason is for not wanting the present we can’t let gifts go to waste even if it may take a bit of time to figure out what to do with the item.

Leading recycling and waste management experts BusinessWaste.co.uk reveal the best ways to re-purpose unwanted Christmas gifts.

5 ways to recycle, reuse or donate unwanted presents

1.       Donate toys to a children’s hospital 

If your children have received one too many presents or it wasn’t best suited to them then you can donate unwanted toys and children’s products to a children’s hospital or hospice near you. 

2.       Take books to a school or charity

Maybe you’ve read the book already over the Christmas period or its one you already have the bookshelf. Why not check if your local school, library or charity shop are taking books. Also Books 2 Africa is a specific book charity that donates over 20,000 books each month to schools and centres in Africa. 

3.       Make money by selling online

Unwanted gifts can be rehomed and given to someone else to be loved. If your selling via ebay you can donate to charity whilst earning for yourself too, all you need to do is select a percentage of the proceeds to go to charity.

4.       Re-gift

Keep those unwanted gifts in good condition and still in the packaging to pass on to someone as a birthday present or for Christmas next year. This will help you to save money in the future but just make sure you take note of who originally got you the present as you don’t want to re-gift back to them. 

5.       Save all the packaging for next year

Now that all unwanted gifts have been taken care of, make sure you save all your Christmas packaging from brown parcel paper to gift bags and wrapped paper for wrapping presents next year. You may not know but a lot of wrapping paper contains plastic that can take hundreds of years to break down which is damaging for the environment and wildlife, so recycle and give it a second use rather than sending to landfill.