Dreaming of a Green Christmas
Although you have little influence as to whether you experience a White Christmas; it is possible for you to make sure you have a green one. Here’s some eco tips to help you reduce your festive footprint this year:
Your Tree
Around 8 million Christmas trees are bought every December in the UK, with many of them being shipped over from the continent. It’s a lot of intensive production and a vast amount of waste. But luckily, you have many options when it comes to picking a greener option.
2019 is set to be the biggest year for Christmas-tree hiring service from garden centres and plant nurseries, with many even offering to drop off and collect the tree after use. This hassle-free option is great for the environment too, as the tree will be replanted and reused in future years.
If tree rental isn’t for you, buying your own is ok. Be sure to select one grown sustainably by looking for either the FSC or Soil Association logo. After use, look into your councils Christmas Tree recycling scheme. Most have allocated locations where people can leave their trees, which will be shredded and probably used as mulch or composted.
If you tend to go down the plastic tree route, bear in mind that these take huge amounts of energy to make. Although it might not be single use plastic, it will have to be disposed of somewhere down the line. If you decide you’d like an artificial tree and don’t already have one sitting in your attic, buy a top quality one that will last for a while, rather than one which will need replacing soon.
Your Lights
You can buy LED lights everywhere now and they have so many positives! If one LED lights burns out the rest of the strand will stay lit. That’ll save you from having to redecorate midway through your celebrations. They also use 95% less energy than traditional holiday bulbs and last up to 100,000 hours. Although admittedly the original outlay is usually pricier, over a 30-day period, they will save you money. Whilst lighting 500 traditional holiday lights will cost you around £13.00, lighting 500 LED lights will only cost you £0.13. That’s an eco and wallet friendly tip!
Your Wrapping Paper
When you’re selecting wrapping paper, try not to be drawn to anything shiny. This won’t be recyclable. Take a look at the labels and be sure to pick one with a recycle logo on, of which there are lots of now. The same goes for gift tags. if you have saved any of last year’s Christmas Cards, you can cut them out and use those. We throw nearly 2 billion cards away each Christmas in the UK—these are all waiting to be repurposed!
When you unwrap gifts, especially large ones, the paper can often be saved, ironed flat and reused for smaller presents in the future. Saving bows and ribbons also reduce waste, and stops you having to buy more next year!
Your food
When food shopping, try your best to select things that are light on packaging. Where possible, buy loose vegetables. Although it’s not feasible to shop entirely in local grocery shops and butchers anymore, do this when you can. Local shops will often offer a wider selection of organic and free-range options. These are expensive but smaller scale farms are so much better for animal welfare, the environment and our own health.
Food waste is a huge issue in the UK all year round, but even more so at Christmas. Try to avoid throwing leftovers, and instead try to transform them into different meals, freeze or compost them.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!
Bin collectors and refuse sorters have a big task on their hands when the festive period comes to an end. Make sure you sort your rubbish correctly to help them, and the environment, out.
It won’t be easy to fight off the rampant consumerism of the festive period, but a few changes here and there are worthwhile. As well as this, when there is more consumer demand for eco-friendly options, there will be more supply from producers.