Ready or not, Christmas is coming: there is no getting away from December’s festivities. Among gift-buying frenzies, planning for special dinners and house-decorating traditions, do you turn into Santa Claus’ assistant or do you live in fear of December’s festivities?
No matter where you are in the spectrum, we know one topic that will make you sweat – how to be more sustainable during Christmas. It’s a happy time, everyone wants to be merry and leave behind all problems, just for a day. However, worrying news about climate change, protests such as Extinction Rebellion or Fridays for Future and growing reports by the media or through documentaries (remember BBC’s War on Plastic?) are pushing many of us to question their Christmas habits.
There will always be that not-so-close family member who we need to buy a present for or that dinner party we can’t get out from. And have you thought of the various Christmas cards we end up sending to our near & dears and the waste that they create? According to a report from the Greeting Cards Association, over one billion cards are sold in the UK alone for Christmas every year.
Then wrapping paper, bows & ribbons, all add up to the already excessive packaging waste we produce, little of which is recycled. According to a study, people in the UK create 30% more waste than usual over Christmas and are also less careful about recycling correctly.
But on the positive side, small adjustments to your Christmas planning can make a massive difference! Here are our top 5 tips to help you celebrate a more sustainable Christmas this year.
Let’s face it, we live in the world of consumerism. We buy more than we really need.
Nowadays, we can afford to buy “goods” that we find “useful” whenever we want. We don’t necessarily need a special occasion to receive either a needed or completely superfluous gift. So why not avoid going overboard with presents the other person may not need and buy something more personal, that tells her you’re thinking about her. Repeating the same things year after year can make the festivity feel mundane, so the unexpected excitement, a surprise is what most of us will probably appreciate, and there are many ways to make this year’s Christmas more special:
And speaking of wrapping, it’s a great time to ditch the wrapping paper. Old newspapers or second-hand materials work as excellent alternatives. Not only will this avoid pointless plastic waste (which is often non-recyclable) but will also give your gifts a unique look – a more sustainable Christmas can be pretty cool.
Our lives have become so busy and frenetic. Months fly by, it’s suddenly ‘that’ time of the year, and you still haven’t thought about Christmas presents.
Buying presents for Christmas can be a sore spot for many. Try to plan ahead and leave Christmas time to actually enjoy the festivities.
Pay attention to your loved ones’ wishes throughout the year and keep a list of their likes & preferences in your phone/ diary or in any form of ‘make a note’ tool. This will avoid you being caught unprepared when it’s time to go present-shopping. When you feel the time is nigh, try and buy gifts all in one go, whether you’ll buy in high streets or online. Making a lot of trips to the store or making multiple orders online will put more vehicles on the streets. This will cause more congestion on the roads, and more carbon emissions – bad for our health and for the environment.
The lure of online shopping is particularly significant at Christmas when shops are packed with people. Today shoppers are obsessed with next day delivery and often end up shopping right before Christmas day. As convenient as this feels, there are significant sustainability challenges linked to shopping online – mainly related to CO2 emissions due to transportation. To avoid provoking unnecessary added emissions, be careful to:
Don’t buy 5 different things online knowing that you will decide on the 24th which present to give and then return everything in the next week. Returns have a significant environmental impact. First of all, there’s the added CO2 generated by transport. Secondly, there’s the issue of what will happen to your returned item. If it’s damaged or if you take too long to return and the item is not on sale anymore, there’s a chance it might be sent to landfill. Read: more unjustified waste.
Christmas food is great – mince pies, roast turkey & vegetables, pudding and lots of cake – is there a way to make and enjoy more sustainable Christmas dinners without compromising?
Of course there is:
What’s Christmas without lights. A great way to be sustainable this year is to switch to led lights. LEDs lights create the right atmosphere for Christmas and they also have a reduced impact on the environment. In a month LED’s generate 140 times less carbon emissions than incandescent lights – it’s great on the bills too.
And what about decorations?
A lot of food, cards and presents inevitably bring about quite some rubbish. Step up your recycling game for Christmas and make sure to follow the recycling guidelines provided by your local authority. As a general rule:
We hope you’ll find these tips useful and wish you happy festivities and a very sustainable Christmas.
sustain-ability.
more than a word.
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