Have Yourself a Merry Little (Sustainable) Christmas

I think it’s officially okay to talk about Christmas now that we’re in December? For some of us, Christmas starts much earlier as we eagerly hoard presents at the bottom of our wardrobes while for others, the festivities begin only a few days before the big event. Either way, we all have our Christmas traditions which make this time of the year so special. We all share one large ritual, yet it is pretty much forgotten about year on year despite it being present for all our activities, from shopping to cooking to decorating the house. That’s right, waste is one Christmas tradition we all too easily forget about when the presents are set in front of us, or maybe we choose to ignore the bulging bin bags piled by the back door. If you want to start some new ocean-friendly traditions this year, look no further than our jam packed sustainable festive guide!

Now you are thinking about it, I’m sure you can see why Christmas is such a nightmare for our oceans. In the UK alone, 277,000 miles of wrapping paper are thrown away each year. Unravelled in all its shiny, glittery glory, this could stretch all the way to the moon and that’s just one small nation! Americans produce 25% more waste between Christmas and New Year than normal and amongst this are 33 million trees and 2.65 billion cards! UPS deliver Americans 800 million seasonal packages, most likely almost all of them containing some form of plastic packaging and that isn’t even thinking about all the other delivery companies. Christmas demands that we shop more, eat more and consume more resources than ever, leaving our planet dreading our festive season each year.

Yet we can change! Big spiky fir trees are normally the first festive step for families, yet as you can imagine, they create a huge amount of waste, albeit biodegradable. If you want a real Christmas tree this year, why not head out to a pick-your-own farm which not only provides an exciting day out but also means that our trees are not over-harvested as they are only cut down in line with demand. Once finished with your tree, you should look out for local tree recycling schemes as some councils will shred yours into compost or wood chipping used in parks and gardens. If you already have a plastic alternative, they can actually be quite good for the environment as they can be brought out year on year but to avoid throwing old unwanted ones in the tip, try giving them away to local charities, preschools or old people’s homes which may be thankful for some yuletide goodwill. Yet your most sustainable tree option is to rent a tree. Did you even know that was a thing? I certainly didn’t but some farms allow you to rent a potted tree which is then replanted in the New Year. Maybe you even already have your very own home grown potted garden tree you want to bring in year after year.

Did you know that tinsel takes roughly 1,000 years to break down? To avoid this multicolour waste filling your bins, you can create your own from tissue paper or make increasingly fashionable pom pom buntings alongside origami paper stars and edible cookie baubles. You can gain many of the decorations you need from the natural world too, from pine cones to holly, mistletoe to fragrant cinnamon sticks. After your house is filled with the natural scents of fir, cinnamon, gingerbread and orange, you will wonder why plastic ever featured so heavily in your décor.

Next is writing those lovely but time-consuming Christmas cards. Firstly, there is a conundrum around cards and recycling. Cards adorned with glitter, shiny foil, ribbons or any other fancy bits cannot be recycled until you remove all these extras. Yet the simple cards can easily be recycled but in the UK alone, 1 billion cards are thrown in the bin each year when they could be recycled into a new product. So proper recycling etiquette is the first step to becoming sustainable but you can also upcycle last year’s cards into new homemade, personal alternatives. Even more simply, you can cut off the back of the card with the message written on it and simply send out the decorative front covers as Christmas postcards or use them as labels on your stash of well-hidden presents. If you’re looking for a truly sustainable alternative, why not buy cards printed on seed paper this year? This paper is filled with wildflower seeds so after spending the appropriate amount of time on your mantlepiece, the card can be placed in a pot with soil and water and by spring there will be a bunch of wildflowers to either brighten up your loved one’s home or provide a perfect pollen snack for our bees and butterflies. This truly is the gift that keeps on giving and reminds your friends and family that you are still thinking about them long after New Year has passed.

If you think you’ve got the recycling of festive cards nailed, it’s now time to move on to the even trickier business of wrapping paper. A lot of wrapping paper isn’t recyclable at all, for instance, the shiny foil type is actually made up of metal, paper and plastic and our recycling centres simply cannot separate out all these materials from such a slim waste product. To test if your plain paper is recyclable, use the scrunch test by scrunching up a handful of paper. If it stays in a tight ball it is generally recyclable. Glitter, despite everything you’ve been told, is actually your enemy! Glitter is basically millions of tiny microplastics which easily slip down our drains or into our binbags and from there can be swept by wind and water out to the ocean where animals barely even notice they are munching down on this inedible menace. Glitter also causes mayhem at the recycling plant as its microscopic size means that it sneaks through the filtering process and makes it all the way through the production stage under the radar. It is only in the final stage where they test for contaminants that they find glitter in their brand new role of recycled paper. This means that the entire roll of paper has to be rejected and scrapped! So, we’ve established that glitter is bad but so is Sellotape. Sellotape is probably the biggest contaminator in recycling plants and if it is found anywhere, the entire bale of paper has to be thrown and rediverted to our bursting landfill sites. So this Christmas when you’re feeling fat and full after your big family lunch, you can slowly pick off all the pesky Sellotape as you settle down in front of the TV. Or you could simply switch up the way you wrap presents. Brown paper really is coming back in fashion and you can decorate it yourself using reusable wooden block ink stamps in the shape of trees, snowmen and presents. For something a bit more sophisticated, Wrag Wrap has created sheets of patterned fabric which can easily be wrapped around presents of any obscure size and is secured using an elasticated pull cord and a button. Other ways to avoid Sellotape include using biodegradable paper tape, fabric ribbon or coloured twine, just not the shiny metallised ribbon!

So the wrapping paper is at the ready, now just to find something to wrap in it. So many presents these days come encased in plastic bags, tubs or packets but there are some great sustainable options you can consider to fill up those stockings. First of all, there is the obvious plastic switch products such as bamboo keep cups, clothes made from recycled fishing nets and bees wax wraps for the budding chefs. Yet there are many other gifts which also help our environment including wildflower planting kits, yearly membership for a charity or books to inspire your friends to tackle the challenge of a zero-waste lifestyle. For children, there are still many wooden toy alternatives while for those who are in need of a pamper, Lush has an incredible range of plastic free bath goods. You could even purchase unique crafts made by small communities in less developed countries to help out those in need while still providing a beautiful wrapped present. There are many small groups in India who are upcycling saris into rugs, bed throws and even dog collars. To avoid waste altogether, why not buy your loved ones an experience; an evening at the theatre, an adrenaline filled surf lesson or a photography class will make for a much more memorable 2019 Christmas which can be looked back at with fondness in years to come. Tiny presents can also be stuffed into homemade crackers to boycott the extortionate level of single use plastic tat that is found in supermarket alternatives. Your own crackers can be made from cardboard toilet rolls and crepe paper and filled with your own jokes, however dodgy they may be.

So decorations, cards and presents have all been ticked off our sustainable list; all that’s left is the all important dinner. When shopping for your big Christmas food haul, why not try out the local farmers’ market and butchers for fresh, local and most importantly, plastic free goods. If you’re too busy icing the cake and rolling out the mince pie pastry, veg boxes can easily be ordered in most neighbourhoods. On the subject of mince pies, remember to recycle the foil cases! Look out for other treats which are packaged in recyclable foil or cardboard as opposed to plastic and steer clear of the individually wrapped sweets and chocolates. Even screw cap wines and beer bottle tops have an inner plastic seal so why not go all out this year and bring home corked wines and a returnable keg from a local brewery. It’s Christmas after all! Use your leftovers wisely and make use of the abundance of online recipes which turn your brown bananas into banana bread, old satsumas into orange cake and half empty liquors into trifles. For the crumbs, stale bread and uneaten fruit and nut, your garden birds will happily help you dispose of those without any waste at all.

All the Christmas essentials have been covered, all that’s left to do now is enjoy yourselves. For the many families heading out on a blustery Boxing Day walk, why not take a bin bag and some gloves with you to help clean our beautiful landscapes, giving the ocean the gift that keeps on giving while thanking it for another year of beauty, adventure and inspiration. Check back in a few weeks’ time for our ocean-friendly New Year’s resolution ideas; maybe that Boxing Day beach clean will really inspire you to take the next step in protecting our oceans. Merry Christmas!

By Neve McCracken-Heywood

Also check out:

15 Ways to Live Zero Waste Lifestyle and Tips to Adopt Trash-Free Living