Tis the season to HAVE a much more sustainable Christmas.
The Christmas is season is all about spending time with family, gift-giving and the general festive spirit. Whatever way, you spend the festive season, it really is a special time of the year. One thing to keep in mind is Sustainability is not that difficult over Christmas with a little bit of organization. But where do you start and does it add extra expense to an already expensive period of the year?
Sustainable Christmas trees
For some going to pick out the Christmas tree is all part of getting in the Christmas spirit for others, the logistics involved can be stressful. Either way, Choosing a new tree every year or buying an ornamental tree does have its differences. Around 32 million Christmas trees were sold in The US in 2018. A substantial 23 million artificial trees were sold too.
Artificial trees have the advantage of being reusable every year. How they are manufactured is important too, ensuring your tree is of good quality and was produced sustainably is vital. Some artificial trees are manufactured using harmful PVC plastics. If you would rather have a real tree, consider organically grown Christmas trees. Organic means no harmful chemicals have been used in their planting, which is pretty important.
When it comes to disposal, it can be used as mulch which can be put back into the garden. It could also be used for your own craft projects. If you are looking to help the local environment, you could donate your old Christmas tree to help with beach erosion. The tree could also be used to provide shelter for the local wildlife.
If you after something unique, you can now buy plywood or even cardboard trees.
Sustainable Christmas – gift giving
A big problem with gift-giving is not the gift itself but longevity and if the gift is practical. A practical gift doesn’t have to be boring, so think logically when looking for gifts.
A quick search will bring sustainable gift ideas anything from Gin to reusable bottles and jewellery. There really are loads of options. Obviously, you have gift packaging too. Ensure the company you buy from supports sustainable production methods and their packaging is recyclable or reusable.
Sustainable Christmas – Food waste:
Christmas is all about the big dinners and allowing yourself a bit of leeway on that diet, after all, January is a clean slate. As you can imagine we can’t predict the exact quantities of food needed for our Christmas dinners. Most families tend to go higher rather than lower in terms of quantity. So there is always going to be food waste, but just how much?
In the UK alone approximately 74 million mince pies, 2 million Turkeys, and 5 million Christmas puddings will go to waste. All of which could be significantly reduced with the right amount of preparation. A good rule of thumb is to plan ahead, give portions rather than allow everyone to take their own and freeze anything that is not used.
Sustainable Christmas – Dinner prep：
What’s more festive than going for a stroll along the stands of your local farmers market? Well, it’s a great answer to suitability too, so make sure you buy locally and use seasonal vegetables that don’t need to be transported across the world.
Organic food means little to no harmful chemicals were used in the food production process, so that’s important too. Last but not least, don’t forget that buying locally produced goods puts more money into the local economy. This is good for your neighbours as well as you.
If you love cooking unique dishes you are going to love some of the great International dish’s we have found for you, check out Green Cloud Nine Instagram, Facebook or Linkedin for more info.
Sustainable Christmas – Think outside the box
Reduced packaging is most definitely in style at the moment. This is because consumers are demanding more eco-friendly products and see an Eco-conscious product as an important selling point for buying the product. Unfortunately, we still produce lots of waste, but just how much?
In the UK around 227,000 miles of wrapping paper will be thrown away, that’s a lot of trees to cut down. Meanwhile in the US 38,000 miles of ribbon will be discarded and around 11 billion dollars of packaging will be thrown away.
So what’s the takeaway from all these stats？ We can definitely save a large percentage of these with the right controls in place, and the mentality that we have abundant resources but not endless.
Sustainable Christmas – Toys and unused gifts.
Kids grow up quickly and grow out of their toys just as quick. They want what their friends have or what is being advertised. But what do you do with the toys when they are no longer needed,? Sending them to the landfill is an easy choice, but most toys are estimated to last between 15 to 20 years with proper care. That’s a long time, and a lot of possible usage going to waste.
In Australia alone, over 20 million gifts are unwanted and will go unused or be thrown away. Buy practical long-lasting gifts, it will be appreciated when it is still being used many years later. Another consideration could be to buy an experience rather than an actual gift, a voucher to learn a new skill is a very memorable gift for many.
Are you ready for Christmas? Why not check out the Green Cloud Nine marketplace for genuinely Eco-friendly gifts. Best of all you can offset your delivery CO2 at checkout. So you can have a guilt-free Christmas with amazing GREEN GIFTS for your friends and family.
Christmas cards:
Christmas cards, some people love them some people don’t even open them and throw them away. If you like sending them or receiving them, ensure you recycle the ones you receive and ask recipients to recycle the ones they receive.
Around 1 billion Christmas cards end up in landfills every year, so ensure you buy from sustainable companies and they are fully recyclable. If you and your friends are very responsive to their emails, maybe an e-Christmas card will be more suitable and better received.
Transportation:
Driving to visit family for Christmas, is as old as cars themselves. There have been songs written about it and it is nearly always the opening scene in most Christmas movies. So how can you ensure you are not increasing your carbon footprint over the holidays?
A couple of easy methods would be using public transport, using ride-sharing apps and of course if you are in the position to own an EV use that. When you are going a short distance ditch the car and burn off the Christmas treats instead. If you have a combustion-engined car, ensure it is serviced, the tires are good with correct pressures, it will help your economy as well as reduce emissions produced.
If technology is your thing why not check out our article on Sustainable technology of the future.
Conclusion:
- If you are planning a Dinner ensure you have a plan to use everything.
- If you are using wrapping don’t forget to save it for next year, when the gift has been opened.
- Buy from companies that are genuinely supporting sustainable practices.
- Reusing will save you money.
- Do your research when purchasing a Christmas Tree they may look similar but the potential damage to the environment is not.
- Try to use the circular economic concept whenever possible, it has been shown to work, and will most likely become more important as the world becomes more sustainable, think of long lasting and reusable products.