Merry “Green” Christmas Tips!

Merry “Green” Christmas Tips!

With great Christmas family events comes great responsibilities! Through this celebration that we love it’s only natural to try to make the most out of it, as we should. Decorations, gifts, and goodies like the cookies recipe we shared are all part of what makes this season so special! However, here’s the catch: it has been found that there’s an increase of 30% in the waste we produce during this festive period, therefore it must be addressed.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that the environment is not a great fan of the season, from food waste to packaging. Here’s why based on studies just in the UK:

  • Around 65% of people admit to buying too much Christmas food that ends up in the bin;
  • Approximately 263,000 turkeys, 5 million mince pies, 740,000 portions of Christmas pudding, 17.2 million sprouts, 11.3 million potatoes, and 9 million carrots end up wasted and in the landfills;
  • We’re seeing about 125,000 tonnes of plastic dumped, from decorations and gift wrappers/boxes;
  • There’s an additional use of 100 million plastic black bags for waste packaging.

As we can see, it’s certainly not very jolly. The fight goes on and hopefully, we’ll be able to improve these statistics in the following years and, while we’re at it, this upcoming new year’s eve! We’ve put together some ways of helping out when it comes to reducing the waste sent to landfills:

  • Plan your food portions - This might seem like something out of a cyberpunk genre, but it really comes in handy in our daily lives as well! Making a list of the food you’ll need for Christmas and sticking to it will help you in the long run;
  • Freeze the leftovers or get creative with them! Even if you have some goodies left, you can always eat them later;
  • Replace shiny wrapping paper that can’t be recycled with recyclable paper, along with reusable gift bags that you can use year after year. You could use newspapers, magazines, old calendars, and even some old t-shirts to give an unique look to your gifts;
  • When it comes to children, hopefully, they aren’t just getting one present. So why not get one big present sack, like Santa’s, to avoid wrapping them all separately? They’ll love it!
  • Embrace the tradition and reuse your artificial Christmas trees as long as you can! If you’re replacing them, you could offer them to some local business near you. If you’re using a real Christmas tree, you can choose to re-plant it, use it for wood, or turn it into mulch or compost.

Hope you enjoyed these festive tips. Garbags wishes you a Happy New Year full of happiness, success, and prosperity! 

See you next year!