|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas ... Here are just a few ideas for ways to cut your carbon footprint this Christmas! |
|
| Presents Every year most of us receive at least a couple of unwanted gifts, often presented in acres of needless packaging. Each Christmas around 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging are thrown away. Avoid adding to the problem this year by thinking carefully about your choice of present. |
|
You could avoid a wrapped present altogether. Cinema tickets, magazine or comic subscriptions or a day at a spa are great ideas. Membership of an organisation such as the National Trust or RSPB make good presents for a whole family. For children, giving a gift token or a book token ensures that they don't get piles of plastic toys - and most teenagers will appreciate an i-voucher so they can download their favourite music. Some charities offer animal sponsorship as a gift. Or why not a have a tree or a whole grove of trees planted for your loved ones? Both Trees For Life and Little Green Space offer tree planting schemes. Gifts from charity shops and catalogues will benefit people other than the recipient of the gift. And Oxfam Unwrapped has a great selection of charity gifts, for those people in our lives who really do have everything.
|
|
|
Organising a "Secret Santa" is a good idea if you have a lot of work colleagues or friends to buy for - and will save you money. Agree a budget - say £10 - that everyone must stick to. Then put everyone's names into a hat. Everyone picks just one name from the hat, so only has to buy one present. Locally-produced food and drink are usually very welcome gifts -- you could really go to town and make up a hamper full of local, organic goodies, bought from your local farmers' market. Or get into the kitchen and try making your own foodie gifts, such as chutney, chocolates, cakes or cookies. Wherever you shop for gifts, make sure that you take reusable shopping bags with you. |
 |
|
Food A traditional Christmas dinner uses seasonal British food which can nearly always be bought from a local producer. Try your local farmers' market for fresh, seasonal produce, and try to choose organic, as non-organic agriculture relies on chemical pesticides and fertilisers, the production and use of which adds to climate change. Choose loose, not packaged vegetables. If you're having a party avoid using disposable plates and cups, as they will just go straight to landfill. Last Christmas around 90% of the country's waste was thrown away - even though much of it could have been recycled. Millions of sprouts are sold in the week before Christmas - make sure you compost the peelings from yours! |
|
Try to avoid food wastage by planning the holiday meals carefully, and not over-buying. Around a third of the food we buy ends up in the bin - what a waste! Action here will save you money and will reduce the waste going to landfill, which means less greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. Finally, get around to defrosting your freezer before the Christmas season begins - it will work far more effectively, saving energy, and there will be more space to freeze those leftovers.
|
 |
| Cards
Around a billion cards end up in the bin each Christmas. Make an impact on Christmas landfill by sending e-cards -- charity e-cards are available from many organisations, including MacMillan and the Woodland Trust. Make sure that you reuse or recycle any cards that you receive this year. Converting the cards into other paper products and saving them from landfill can save thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases. And you can use old cards to make gift tags for next year. At work, encourage your company to take advantage of a card-free Christmas scheme such as the one being run by Trees for Life.
|
|
| Decorations
Strings of fairy lights on the Christmas tree use a fairly small amount of energy, but do switch them off when there is no-one there to see them. For outdoors, you could invest in some solar powered fairy lights, which will cost you absolutely nothing to run, and won't add to your carbon footprint. It is generally accepted that having a real Christmas tree is more environmentally-friendly than buying an artificial tree. Fake trees last for only six years on average - but take hundreds of years to break down |
 |
| in landfill. And it takes an awful lot of
energy to produce an artificial tree. Not only that, but as most tend to be manufactured
in China or Taiwan there is another energy cost in transporting them to
the UK. If you do choose an artificial tree, try to avoid
"trendy" trees in silver, white or black, as these will very
soon be out of fashion: opt for traditional green which will never date.
Better instead: go for a locally grown tree from a Forest Stewardship Council accredited grower. You will then be buying a completely renewable, carbon neutral tree which has had the added benefit of providing a habitat for wildlife species during its lifetime. When you have finished with your tree, get it recycled - most local councils will grind old Christmas trees into mulch for parks and gardens. Find out about council recycling schemes at www.letsrecycle.com. If you buy one with the roots on, plant it in the garden and reuse it each year. |
|
|
Similarly, real foliage decorations such as holly, ivy and mistletoe are much better environmentally than their plastic counterparts - and by bringing fresh greenery into your house at Christmastime you will be continuing a tradition that has gone on for hundreds of years. Try also making decorations with chillies, popcorn, berries, dough, cinnamon sticks and gingerbread: all can be composted when finished with.
|
 |
