Christmas is the worst time of year for the environment, with thousands of tiny lights blinking out carbon dioxide, excessive packaging, discarded gifts and bins full of leftover food. For those of you seeking a greener Christmas, however, there are ways to reduce your festive footprint without having to sacrifice any of the pleasure.
Tree wise men
There are many debates over the merits of a plastic tree. This option is often touted as the eco-friendly alternative to a real tree, and it can be if your tree has been intensively farmed before being shipped miles to your home, but I have some reservations.
Plastic trees, unlike puppies, are not always for life. If you don’t buy a tree which is good quality you could end up having to replace it after just a few years and even then I find the idea of contributing to what is becoming an increasingly plastic-filled Christmas off putting, especially if the product isn’t made locally.
For most people the January blues are because of dull, grey weather and long working days, but as a child mine were seeing the tree stripped of its gaudy baubles, its heady pine scent fading and its branches turning brown and brittle, then taken outside to await its inevitable fate – the rubbish tip. It seemed a poor way to repay it for its contribution to Christmas.
A tree friendly option is to buy a potted pine tree that can be reused and will survive for a good number of years if it’s lovingly taken care of, just make sure you re-pot it as it grows and keep it out of the wind.
Non-traditionalists can use a tree from their garden or large plant they already own; an unusual tree like the Japanese bonsai will produce a striking effect and after Christmas it can work as a house plant for the rest of the year.
According to the Energy Saving Trust, an ample light display in your home this year could produce about 400 kg of carbon dioxide. Outdoor lights tend to use more energy than indoor ones, so your first step should be to limit your light decorations to the interior of your house.
Try switching to LED lights: they’re also much cooler than regular bulbs and are less of a fire hazard to your tree. Make sure you turn them off at night when you go to bed and don’t have them on when there’s daylight; otherwise look for lights that have a timer on them.
You’ll also want to consider making a wreath that can either be put away to use next year or recycled. This year my wreath will be made out of rosemary and other herbs so that it will not only smell fantastic but can be recycled into dried herbs for cooking and little sachets to tuck away in drawers and wardrobes.
Frankincense, myrrh and gold
Under trees across the island lie piles of presents soon to become mountains of shredded wrapping paper and bubble wrap, leaving you knee deep in one of the worst eco crimes of the season. Avoid this by looking at more creative ways of giving gifts.
Recycle what you might once have thrown out into wrapping paper: large chip bags when turned inside out and washed make great silver gift wrap; comic pages from newspapers and leftover scraps of fabric for small presents make interesting wrapping paper.
A gift within a gift is also a beautiful way to give, wrap small presents in scarves, use a pretty brooch to decorate plain recycled paper and customized cloth bags which you can use like stockings to contain lots of presents.
By far the best option would be to dispose of wrapping paper all together, to make up for the lack of excitement hide the presents around the house and organise a treasure hunt.
Even very small presents are often packaged using more card and plastic than is necessary. Perfume sets, for example, are one of the worst culprits – at least one quarter of their product price is dedicated to their packaging.
Try not to buy things in shop-wrapped gift boxes, instead pack them yourself. Peanuts in their shells, dried herbs and popcorn are fun but efficient ways of protecting fragile gifts.
If you must buy Christmas cards, buy either charity ones or reduce the damage with ones using recycled paper, you can also reuse the cards you received last year as tags on presents and as postcards to send instead of new cards – just be careful you don’t send them to the same people you got them from!
‘Buy Nothing Day’ last month was a reminder that our ever increasing shopping habits are at least partly responsible for our ever increasing carbon footprints. Look at where the items you’re buying were made and try and stick to locally made items or second-hand gifts like books.
A survey done in 2006 for the auction website Ebay showed that about €5 billion worth of gifts are unwanted by their owners. Try and avoid the impulse to buy things because you feel panicked or pressured to do so; many people are left scouring the shelves for suitable gifs for co-workers or distant relatives they feel obliged to buy for with mounting panic and end up buying things like scented candles (which, incidentally was one of the gifts most returned on Ebay).
A good way to get out of this is to make a small donation in the person’s name to a charity; it’s appropriate and cuts down on waste.
The goose is getting fat
Your supermarket can be a tempting time around the Christmas period, with offers on food and wine, adverts for delicacies that can’t be missed and a confusing array of choices for your Christmas dinner.
When it comes to turkey it is important to check where it’s coming from. Look at how many miles it had to travel to get to you; a locally sourced bird will always be your greenest option. The same goes for locally grown vegetables and fruit.
The website www.lovefoodhatewaste.com says that 64 per cent of their users predict that they’ll have leftovers on Christmas day. To avoid this, calculate portion sizes before you go shopping and stick to your list, don’t buy things just because they’re Christmas specials or because they’re in super-sized packets or on offer.
It can be tempting to buy them, but a lot of people don’t realise that this often leads to large amounts of waste when the food doesn’t get eaten in time, so always choose to buy things like vegetables and fruit loose, without plastic packaging, and only buy as much as you need.
On the other hand, do buy things like drinks in large bottles as it will save on plastic or glass.
Get a little creative this year and enjoy your holidays with a clear conscience.