How to be sustainable at Christmas
Gift wrapping
In the UK, we use 227,000km of wrapping paper each Christmas, this is enough to circle the earth 5.6 times! Most of this wrapping paper is not recyclable as it is plastic, foil or glitter.
Here are some tips to be more sustainable:
- Use string rather than sticky tape to wrap gifts
- Gift bags can be re-used time and time again
- Reduce, reuse, recycle! Reuse old magazines, comics, newspaper or fabric to wrap gifts to add some personal flair.
- Remove sticky tape before recycling wrapping paper so that Merseyside Recycling will be able to process it (What Can Be Recycled? - Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority)
Food
About five million puddings, two million turkeys, and 74 million mince pies go to waste each Christmas. Help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect our natural resources by thinking carefully about how much food you buy this festive season.
- Choose seasonal and local grown vegetables
- Choose free range meats, where affordable.
Christmas tree
If you’re looking for a sustainable Christmas tree that’s been grown using fewer pesticides, your best bet is a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) certified, or a Grown In Britain tree. According to the Carbon Trust, a two-metre artificial tree has a carbon footprint of around 40kg, more than ten times that of a real tree that’s burned after Christmas.
- Check to see if your local council recycle it, if you can pop it in your garden waste recycling bin. Alternatively if you, or someone you know has a wood burner (and the storage space) the branches give off a lovely smell and crackle and pop if you put them in with your other logs. Some garden centres offer a “return and recycle” where you can exchange your tree for a money off voucher or a small refund.
- Sponsor a Tree at the NHS Forest this winter as a gift and receive a Christmas card to print and send to a loved one Sponsor a tree.
Energy
In the UK, we spend around £1 million on Christmas day just powering our TVs. In fact, we watch so much TV on Christmas day, the energy used could power 43,000 TVs for one year!
- When cooking your Christmas dinner, turn your heating down or off, plenty of heat will already be circulated around the house!
- Switch off appliances when you're not using them, or visiting friends and family. Having items on standby still uses electricity. This will help save energy, money and reduce your household carbon emissions.