Reduce your carbon footprint this Christmas with these festive tips on how to be more environmentally friendly.
Christmas is an exciting time of year, where we can surround ourselves with festivities, family and friends. But one thing that always seems to be an afterthought is the environment.
Each year landfills fill up with wrapping paper, leftover food, and things rendered obsolete by new gifts. But, it doesn’t have to be this way.
Here are five ways that we can all be more sustainable and environmentally aware this Christmas:
Swap wrapping paper for brown paper
Although wrapping paper looks pretty and comes in all sorts of colours, patterns and materials, it has a terrible impact on the environment. Most wrapping paper can’t be recycled due to the high volume of ink and glitter. Brown paper is far more biodegradable, due to the lack of chemicals involved in creating it.
If you’re worried about how dull brown parcels will look under a Christmas tree, fear not, as you can still decorate the presents you’ve wrapped. If you use biodegradable stamps and ribbons, or eco-friendly ink, you can still make your gifts look nice, while ensuring your presents have a minimal carbon footprint.
Buy a reusable advent calendar
Everyone enjoys cracking open their new advent calendars in December but, once we reach our last chocolate on Christmas Eve, the cardboard and plastic packaging gets thrown away.
Whether you prefer chocolates or gifts in your calendar, you should consider purchasing one that’s reusable. You’ll still get the joy of opening it every day, but it will last you for more than one festive period. If you like surprises and don’t want to fill it yourself, offer to make one for a loved one while they pick the treats to put in yours.
A bonus of this is that reusable advent calendars also tend to be deeper than their disposable counterparts, meaning you’ll be able to fit more goodies inside.
Digital Christmas cards
Like wrapping paper, many Christmas cards are non-recyclable, due to the glitter that tends to end up all over both the card itself and the recipient.
Sending Christmas cards digitally - via email, text, or social media - can be a much better alternative; as well as being more eco-friendly, they also tend to be cheaper than their physical counterparts.
Paperlesspost, Smilebox, and Greenenvelope are just some of the digital Christmas card providers that you can use.
Rent a Christmas tree
Each year, more and more people are opting to rent their Christmas tree, rather than buying an artificial one that clogs up the attic.
There are now Christmas tree farms in the UK where you can rent a tree, before returning it after the festive period to be replanted and available to rent again the following year.
Not only is this better for the environment than buying a real tree and then throwing it away, it also saves you space after the festive period ends.
Shopping local
Whilst the high street shops and online outlets may be the go-to places for Christmas shopping, there are plenty of independent stores with equally good products.
When you shop locally there tends to be less packaging used, and your gifts will have a higher chance of being locally sourced, which further minimises their carbon footprint.
Locally-sourced gifts also tend to have a more personal feel, compared to the mass-produced products you’ll find on Amazon. You’ll also be supporting your community, helping to further the festive cheer.
We can all benefit from binge more environmentally aware, and by making just one of these changes you can become more sustainable and help shrink Christmas’s carbon footprint.
What are you doing to help the environment this Christmas? Join our panel today and let us know.
