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 Article kindly provided by
Waste Watch
The Christmas holidays - a time of goodwill and celebration, often accompanied by seasonal increases in eating, drinking and spending. This combination usually results in a lot of fun, but unfortunately it will also produce an estimated 3 million tonnes of waste. However you can have the best of both worlds. With a bit of thought, you can limit the impact you have on the environment this holiday season and still have a great time.
Food and drink
- Avoid goods which involve unnecessary packaging or complicated mixed material packaging which can make recycling difficult.
- Buy food and drink packaged in materials that can be recycled in your area, such as paper and glass and in large containers rather than in lots of small ones.
- Order any extra milk in returnable bottles to avoid plastic bottles or cartons from the supermarket.
- SNUB - Say No to Unwanted Bags! Always use a reusable shopping bag or reuse plastic bags. Don't accept bags that you don't need.
Presents
- Buy gifts which are durable, especially for children. Things which break easily will just end up in the bin, and cannot be reused by anybody.
- Try to avoid buying or requesting presents which rely on disposable parts, including batteries. Always look for alternatives, like a coffee maker with a washable filter rather than throwaway paper ones, or rechargeable batteries, with a solar powered charger.
- Look out for gifts with a high recycled content or made from recycled materials, such as glass tableware or photo frames. The Recycled Products Guide (RPG)
www.recycledproducts.org.uk, lists over 1,000 products made from recycled materials.
Wrapping and decorating
- Choose decorations which can be reused, rather than flimsy ones which will be used once and thrown away. Making decorations from scrap materials is a fun way to keep children occupied!
- Buy a UK-grown real tree with roots which you can then plant in your garden or keep in a pot for next year. Artificial trees can be used many times but have to be disposed of eventually and as they are usually made of a number of different materials, including plastics, they are difficult to recycle.
- Home-made gift tags can be made from old greetings cards. Any kind of unusual paper can be used to wrap gifts.
- Save envelopes and reuse them with reuse labels, available from many charity catalogues and shops.
- Buy recycled wrapping paper and use string, ribbon or wool for wrapping gifts, rather than using sticky tape. The string can then be reused, and the paper too.
Recycling Christmas trees
Check with your local community authorities regarding the recycling of your Christmas tree.
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