With tonnes of wrapping paper, decorations, polystyrene packaging, and unwanted gifts thrown out at Christmas time every year, the average Australian household is estimated to increase their waste by 30% over the festive season. As an increasing number of people turn to online shopping for Christmas gifts this year due to the Covid-2019, GREENMAX encourages people to recycle all the packaging that comes with it.

Christmas is a little bit different this year than what we've seen in the past, since the pandemic began there has been an increase in residential garbage and recycling. In residential buildings, white polystyrene packages, plastic envelopes and large cardboard boxes have been spilling beyond the confines of mailrooms and storage rooms as more people shop online.

A lot of delivery packaging, like cardboard and paper, can be recycled. As for some items that are not considered recyclable like polystyrene boxes and peanuts, aren't included in curbside pickup, but GREENMAX encourages you to take them to a nearby recycling centre instead of throwing them in the garbage, since the waste polystyrene will occupies large space and need to be recycled by professional polystyrene recycling machine.

Actually, it is a misunderstanding that waste polystyrene packaging can not be recycled, as long as it is processed by professional equipment such as polystyrene compactor, it would be easy to turn waste polystyrene into treasure. For example, GREENMAX polystyrene compactor can compress the waste polystyrene foam with a ratio of 50:1, then the dense compressed polystyrene blocks can be reused to granulat and make photo frames and decoration moulding products.

Not only recycling polystyrene gift packaging is an eco-friendly way to make the Christmas “GREEN”, but also helps to lead a recyclable lifestyle during the pandemic. There are some tips to reduce, reuse and recycle over the Christmas:

* Ditching traditional Christmas cards in favour of e-cards or only purchasing cards made from recycled cardboard;

* Avoiding disposable polystyrene tableware at Christmas lunch/dinner;

* Making your own decorations, wrapping paper, cards and gifts