With Christmas fast approaching we want you to know how simple changes can help you have an eco-friendly Christmas.
This year, following COP26, we are all aware of just how important it is to make every effort to be more sustainable - and for many of us this starts at home. Small changes can make all the difference in reducing our environmental footprint, especially after Christmas, when the potential for waste, over consumption, and mass shopping is high. With an extra 30% of rubbish produced and discarded throughout the festive period with more than 100 million bags of rubbish sent to landfill each Christmas, it’s important we all do our bit to make a difference.
These 7 simple tips can help you to host the best eco-friendly Christmas.
❄ Wrap gifts with recycled paper or fabric
Despite more than half of us re-use last year’s wrapping paper according to Any Junk, rubbish clearance specialist, most of us don’t realise that many rolls of wrapping paper contain non-recyclable elements like foil, glitter, or plastic.
Opt instead for recyclable wrapping paper, reuse paper from other places such as old books or maps. Or how about wrapping gifts with fabric instead? Try using colourful fabric squares that can be re-used again and again.
❄ Invest in a reusable advent calendar
Another great eco-friendly Christmas decoration, invest in a reusable advent calendar and fill it with a variety of gifts ranging from the classic chocolates to little trinkets for the family.
❄ Reduce your food waste
Most of us are pretty good at getting creative with our leftovers throughout the year, but when Christmas comes we can be a little more wasteful. One option is to buy less or to use a food waste app such as Olio to help you connect you with people in need in your local area. If you do have excess food waste, don’t forget to use your Mintie Lunchbox to store everything and keep it fresh.
❄ Switch to LED Christmas lights
If every UK household swapped a string of incandescent lights for its LED equivalent, we could save more than £11 million and 29,000 tonnes of CO2, just over the 12 days of Christmas. When it comes to eco-friendly Christmas decorations, LEDs are far better than traditional twinkling incandescent lights, because they use up to 80% less energy.
❄ Rent a Christmas Tree
Looking for the most eco-friendly Christmas tree option? Real Christmas trees are much more sustainable than artificial alternatives. However, between 7 and 8 million Christmas trees are discarded, many left at local parks and recreation grounds to be collected by the council or taken to the local tip. Left to rot in landfill, these trees can emit up to 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases each year. So, why not rent a Christmas tree this year from The Eco Christmas Tree Company and know that it will be replanted and used again next year.
❄ Send Forest-Friendly or plantable Christmas Cards
A quarter of us no longer write Christmas cards, but there is a way to send seasons greetings without costing the planet. Look for cards with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) mark. This guarantees the paper has been produced sustainably and ethically. Plantable cards are growing in popularity too. Wildflower Papers have a brilliant range of seed packet cards that the recipient can sow in the Spring.
❄ Buy eco-friendly Christmas crackers
Replace single-use crackers with reusable ones. Some are made from natural linen and some allow you to add your own personalised gifts. These are great eco-friendly Christmas decorations for the lunch table.