Even in times of recession, Christmas is the season of excess; over-spending, over-eating, over-indulging and inevitably, over-wasting. During the Christmas weeks, waste levels rise by 20% in the UK but with a little prioritisation and organisation, that can be avoided. Here are some simple ideas to reduce waste this year on your way to a Greener Christmas.

Billions of Christmas cards are sent every year. The best way to reduce waste here would be to send an e-card. Or if that doesn’t appeal, make sure you buy cards made from recycled materials and that you recycle the ones you do receive. Or, even better, re-use last years! Bristol is well set up for recycling card – use the system!

Cut down on decoration costs and waste by using old colour newspapers and magazines to make paper chains. Tree decorations too, can be easily made with paint, glitter, cardboard or old Christmas cards – a fun, creative activity which will keep kids happy, occupied and involved. Far better this than buying sparkly decorations made from suspect materials in suspect factories on the other side of the globe and then flown thousands of miles to your supermarket.

Over ten million turkeys are eaten during the festive season in the UK. Millions of these birds are reared intensively in huge, windowless buildings selectively bred, anti-biotic treated for maximum growth and they cannot mate without human intervention. I’m just not hungry for this kind of food at all. If you have a turkey this Christmas, buy one reared to much higher animal welfare standards.

Reduce the number of plastic bags you get through this Christmas by reusing old ones and investing in stronger, ‘bags for life’.

Every year, millions of Christmas trees are bought and thrown out, the cumulative annual waste being enough to fill the Albert Hall more than three times! The best thing you can do if you have a tree is buy one with roots - it can be planted out and used year on year. If you choose a tree without roots, make sure you use local schemes to turn it into mulch for parks and gardens once Christmas is over.

Hundreds of millions is spent on chocolate every Christmas. If you buy Fair Trade chocolate, you will be supporting cocoa farmers, their families and communities much more. They get a fair price for their cocoa beans and rights, pay and working conditions are much better under Fair Trade.

You may not think of all that sticky-tape securing wrapping paper as plastic but it is! It won’t rot and is single-use. String and wool are both more biodegradable and reusable and are therefore the greener option for securing wrapping paper. String and wool also doesn’t mess up the paper it secures and leaves it in a state where, with a little care, it can be retained and reused. Close to ten thousand tonnes of paper is used to wrap UK presents every year and most is, again, wasted. If you have paper that can’t be reused, put it out for recycling in you black box!

Glenn Vowles
http://vowlesthegreen.blogspot.com