A sustainable Christmas

The most wonderful time of year: when we eat the most, drink the most and spend the most. But at what cost does this come to the environment?

The waste resources and action programme (WRAP) report that an extra 3 million tonnes of general waste are produced each year over the Christmas period, 30% more than usual. Of which 100 million bags are sent to landfills, producing greenhouse gases and causing global warming. 

A significant contributor is food waste; in fact, food and drink waste in the UK increases on average by 80% over the Christmas period, with 54 million platefuls of food thrown out each year.

Further contributing to this waste is gifts and packing. Amazon report that on their busiest day in the run-up to Christmas, they will receive an order every 47 seconds. Therefore, it will be no surprise that last Christmas, we spent £11.73 billion on gifts as a nation, and on average, our festive gift purchasing produces twenty per cent of our yearly consumable footprint. Shockingly £4 billion is spent on entirely unwanted gifts that often ends up straight in landfill. Furthermore, with all these presents come wrapping and packaging; on average, 108 million rolls of wrapping paper, 125,000 tonnes of plastic and 300,00 tonnes of card packing each year are binned, and the majority are placed in a landfill.

Overall, our extra household waste created from the festive period is equivalent to generating 1.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide more than the amount of produced by 300,000 cars in a year. 

However, do not fear Christmas is not cancelled. We can make several small changes to have a more sustainable Christmas whilst still indulging and enjoying a well-earned break.

Food

Your choice of meat can significantly impact your carbon footprint; considering a dinner for six, by sticking to your traditional turkey as opposed to beef or lamb, you produce a seventh of the carbon dioxide. If you want to reduce your carbon footprint even further, chicken produces three times less carbon dioxide emissions than turkey, and if you were to swap your turkey for a nut roast, this would reduce your carbon emissions by half. 

  • When food shopping, try and look for UK produce; eating locally grown and seasonal food cuts down food miles and reduces your carbon footprint.

  • Think before you throw away leftovers. You can freeze your leftovers for up to three months or keep them in the fridge for up to two days and try your hand at a new recipe. Check out the BBC good food's Christmas leftovers recipes; spiced turkey pie, baked potato skins with brie and truffle, root veg lentil bowl, and cheeseboard macaroni cheese, to name a few.

  • Finally, the easiest way to reduce food waste is to plan ahead, check your cupboards to make sure you are not overbuying and stick to a list to prevent unnecessary purchases.  

Packaging, presents and cards

  •  Buying fewer but better-quality gifts will hopefully mean that they will last longer, and therefore fewer will go to waste. It is also a good idea to buy with sustainability in mind, such as purchasing items made of recycled materials or purchasing second-hand. If you want to reduce further the number of gifts you purchase over Christmas, you could consider gifting an experience. Many of which are dedicated to being sustainable, from vegan fine dining to forest bathing: Sustainable Experiences | Eco Friendly Gifts - Five Star Days

  • Avoiding all packaging and wrapping at Christmas may be unrealistic; however, you can opt for recyclable materials or fabric wrap gifts.

  • When buying Christmas cards, look for the Forest Stewardship Council stamp and buy those that are recyclable. The RSPB sell 100% recyclable Christmas cards in plastic-free packaging: Charity Christmas Cards | Recyclable & Eco Friendly - RSPB Shop

  • Or, if you want to eliminate your carbon footprint from cards completely, you can send a personalised e-card! Funky pigeon and Moonpig are two of many websites where you can create an e-card.

  • A final thought is on Christmas crackers; every year, 40 million Christmas crackers are thrown away due to not being recyclable. Thankfully well-known stores such as John Lewis now ensure all of their own-brand crackers are plastic-free and recyclable: John Lewis & Partners Snow Mountain Winter Trees Crackers, Pack of 12, Blue / White

 Guide to recycling

  • Test if your wrapping paper is recyclable by using the scrunch test; Screw up the paper, and if it unfolds, it can't be recycled, but if it stays neatly scrunched, then it can be popped into your recycling bin. Make sure all bows, sticky tape and gift tags have been removed.

  • Foil trays can be recycled if they have been rinsed.

  • Plain cards and gift bags are recyclable; however, those with glitter on, foil-coated, or fabric decorations are not recyclable. If you cannot recycle, you should try to reuse gift bags, and you can cut up Christmas cards to make gift tags for the following year.

  • Tinsel cannot be recycled. Try eco-friendly wool or paper garlands.

  • Glass and rigid plastic baubles are not recyclable.

  • Crackers that are plain and do not have glitter or foil on them can be recycled with other paper materials. Make sure any ribbon, toys and jokes have been removed first.

  • Paper napkins cannot be recycled once contaminated with food.

Trees

  • Artificial or living? According to WWF, to make an artificial tree a sustainable choice, you need to use it for at least ten years. Otherwise, it would be better to buy a living tree from a sustainable forest, many forestry's re-plant trees for those that are cut down. Disposing of your artificial tree after one use into a landfill has a carbon footprint of 40kg, almost three time that of a living tree.

  • If you opt for a living tree, responsibility should be taken about disposing of the tree: for example, burning your tree after Christmas has a carbon footprint of 3.5kg compared to 16kg if sent to a landfill. Other eco-friendly ways to dispose of your tree include re-potting it in a plant plot, dropping it at your local garden centre or arranging for a charity to collect it. And if you haven't got your Christmas tree yet for this year, have you considered renting a Christmas tree? The trees are re-potted after use, ready to be used the following Christmas. For more information on how to dispose of your tree sustainably and forestry's that offer Christmas tree renting near you, visit here.

Have a merry Christmas!

"Add life to your years & years to your life."

Written by Hope Parish

Henry Swindell