At this time of year it’s good to give some thought to how you can reduce your festive waste and make sure that as much as possible can be recycled.
Make your Christmas a green one with our tips for reducing and recycling more.
If you cannot repair or reuse, use your recycling bin and the recycling centres. Find out what you can put in your recycling bin.
Gift buying
You can reduce waste when gift buying by:
- shopping responsibly and choosing gifts with less or recyclable packaging
- gifting a conservation membership or an experience, for example a dinner for 2
- not giving unwanted presents
- organising a charity shop secret Santa
- using your nearest refill shop - fill a jar with treats as a gift
- using recyclable batteries for toys
- buying second hand
- thinking about quality not quantity - buy less, but better
Wrapping
Around 50,000 trees are used for wrapping paper each year - enough to circle the globe 9 times.
If wrapping paper scrunches, it can be recycled. Glittery foil wrapping paper is not recyclable because it does not scrunch.
When it comes to wrapping presents:
- try Furoshiki, the Japanese art of wrapping in cloth
- avoid plastic ribbon, use raffia, twine, wool or vintage ribbon
- make a set of reusable drawstring present bags out of material if you have some sewing skills
Crackers and decorations
There are ways to reduce waste when decorating for Christmas.
Decorate with nature - make your own wreath or table decoration using garden plants like Holly and Ivy.
Craft handmade cards, tags, gifts and crackers. The A sustainable life website has tips for cracker alternatives.
An artificial Christmas tree can be a more sustainable option than a real one but make sure you store it well as they need to be used for up to 9 years to have less impact on the environment than natural alternatives.
If you opt for a real tree, find out how you can recycle your Christmas tree.
Take old fairy lights to be recycled at one of our recycling centres.
Food
Follow these tips when food shopping over the Christmas period:
- do a shopping list before your Christmas shop
- avoid marketing gimmicks such as "buy one get one free" if you think it may go to waste
- check your fridge thermostat, it should be at -5 - find out how to check your thermostat
- buy your vegetables loose
- start your own compost heap with all of your vegetable peelings from Christmas dinner
Use your freezer
The following foods can be frozen:
- fruits and vegetables - peel, cut them up and spread them on a baking sheet to freeze before transferring them to a reusable freezer bag
- eggs, cheese and milk
- leftover meat - simply wrap it up in portion-sized amounts and label it, thaw in the fridge and use as normal
- potatoes – boil for about 5 minutes and freeze them for later, when you want them, thaw overnight and roast the next day, mashed potato also freezes well
The Love Food Hate Waste website has more food tips.