Christmas is just around the corner and as exciting as it can be there are some aspects that hurt the environment. More and more people talk about sustainable ways of living and how to help with climate change. Here are some ideas of how best to have a more ‘Green’ Christmas!
Christmas Gifting
When purchasing presents think about where to get them from and what you are purchasing. Consider shopping in-store rather than shopping online. Think about what you’re buying, how you travel to the shops and what kind of products they are. For example, if buying cosmetic items consider if the brand is cruelty-free or not! Remember that not all gifts have to be store-bought, nowadays adults prefer something that is thoughtful and homemade, examples may include personalised cards or a photo album or even a voucher for a nice meal. Make the present meaningful whilst also being more caring for the environment.
Gifts Made from Recycled Items or from local shops- here in Glasgow we see more and more companies starting up which are all about ‘homemade’ or ‘personalised’ gifts. Things like this are ideal for Christmas and also make a present even more special!
Re-gifting- If you have things at home that you have not used but they’re in a good condition there is absolutely no harm in re-gifting them to someone else that you feel would get more use out of them than you would!
Think about your Decorations
Use LED Lights- they are far better energy-usage wise! LED lights use up to 95% less energy than larger, traditional holiday bulbs and last up to 100,000 hours when used indoors, so they are a great investment and can be reused until they run out.
Purchase a live tree rather than using a plastic one- it will be more traditional and you can re-plant it when the festive period is over. An added bonus would be the wonderful pine smell in your home!
Giving Gifts
Make sure you consider how you wrap up your gifts as wrapping paper can’t be recycled due to different designs that most high street wrapping papers tend to have on them. Research suggests that paper waste over the Christmas period is equivalent to 5-12 million litres of biofuel – enough to power a bus to go to the moon over 15 times. Here are some alternatives you can consider!
Use brown paper! This can be recycled and is quite simplistic and you can personalise it whatever way you wish. It’s great if you’re a creative person and you can make funky labels to personalise it in your own unique way!
Use what you already have- reuse gift bags as realistically the majority of households tend to have gift bags leftover from past celebrations so why not save yourself some money and recycle them? It makes the most sense! Another great way to gift presents is to put gifts in boxes, this is ideal as realistically, people would use something like this for storage whether it be for general items or as a ‘memory box’ of some sort.
Food at Christmas
Christmas is an amazing time of year traditionally filled with great food, however, with that also comes a lot of food waste. Make sure you consider this when it comes to this years festive period.
Food waste- Make sure you have plenty of biodegradable waste bags to hand so that you can properly dispose of any food waste after your Christmas dinner!
Got leftover food that is still good for eating and you don’t know what to do with it? Freeze leftover meat or keep for yourself for the few days after Christmas for lunches, or, better yet, take it to your local food bank or give to your local homeless.
Also, consider where you get your food from, try organic and free-range food and if possible small-scale farming. Put good research into your Christmas Shopping List!
Christmas is a wonderful time of year but if you want to be able to spend it with your family in the future you should definitely take some of these issues into account and try to do at least one thing to be more ‘green’ this Christmas!
Feature Image by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
