Making Christmas sustainable
Making Christmas sustainable
The festive season isn’t usually the place to think sustainably: we’re all focusing on pretty decorations, choosing the perfect gifts and enjoying festive favourites from food to carols. But Christmas’ eco-footprint is colossal: in the US, $75 billion is spent on Christmas presents, 20.8 million trees are cut, and 1.9 billion cards are sent; in Australia, 2,285,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution can be attributed to Christmas every year; the UK throws away 230,000 tonnes of food during the Christmas period (the equivalent of 74 million mice pies); and it takes 3.5kg of carbon dioxide to produce just 1kg of wrapping paper.
Gifts
The first place to start to make your Christmas more eco-friendly is to look at your purchasing decisions. Forego an excess of stuff and stocking fillers that will end up in a drawer or a jumble sale next summer and make every gift count: choose presents with value, purchase and meaning, and choose natural, renewable materials that add character to gifts. Choose silk, organic cotton, wood and avoid wrapping paper wherever you can, especially anything glossy or metallic—the UK throws away 227,000 miles of wrapping paper each year, enough to wrap the entire island of Jersey. Skip the Christmas cards or use any leftover from last year: the average American household sends and receives 28 Christmas cards each year, approximately 3.2 billion overall. Think of the trees! Avoid presents that need batteries; not only are they usually the noisiest and most annoying by Boxing Day but only 2 out of 10 batteries get recycled, with the majority contributing to landfill. You could visit antique stores, eBay or charity shops to find unique and unusual items, vintage pieces or retro jewellery. If you’re artsy, why not DIY? Giving the gift of charity is the ultimate way to do good this Christmas: give money to a local charity, sponsor a child overseas, adopt an animal or help impoverished women start a small business.
Christmas trees
The artificial or real tree debate combines tradition, personal preference and sustainability: a live tree can be mulched and supports a local business, while artificial trees can last for years and may use less energy in the long-run. If you like a live tree, try to choose a local business and an organic grower and dispose of it responsibly; if you go down the artificial route, choose a tree built to last and bring it out year after year. Use energy-efficient fairy lights as lights tend to be switched on for an average of ten hours a day—put them on a timer so you don’t have to remember to turn them off. Decorate with durable and meaningful ornaments and choose decorations that will age well: prioritise artisan and handmade over supermarket plastic multipacks. If you can’t decide on a tree, decorate a pineapple instead.
Dinner time
Choose organic, local and free-range as much as possible. This does not need to be expensive and it certainly isn’t prohibitively so. Pick winter vegetables—sprouts, carrots, parsnips, and swedes—and compost any scraps that can’t be used for leftovers or given to animals. Avoid individual drinks: any excuse to bring out bottles of wine to share. Overeating may well be one of the hallowed traditions of the Christmas period but the United Kingdom’s combined Christmas dinners produce the same carbon footprint as a single car travelling 6,000 times around the world. 35 percent of people throw away more food at Christmas than any other time of the year, equating to 230,000 tonnes of food—that’s £275 million worth of food. Buy what you need, use leftovers and freeze what doesn’t get eaten. If you still have leftover food, donate it to a food bank rather than throwing it away. A big dinner means lots of dishes: only set off the dishwasher when it’s full and opt for eco-friendly cleaning products as much as you can.
Making sustainable choices doesn’t need to be difficult or cause any headaches. Simply opt for seasonal vegetables, shop a bit smarter, skip the cards and shedloads of wrapping paper, and choose presents for meaning rather than quantity. And hey, why not make a low carbon resolution for New Year?
Impostor syndrome is ‘the psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their accomplishments and has a persistent internalised fear that they are going to be exposed as a fraud.’