Have a Very Merry 'green' Christmas with these plastic free and environmentally friendly ideas
Christmas brings feelings of joy, festivity and tons and tons of waste. These are some tips to keep single use plastic down this Christmas and enjoy the festive season with minimal impact on the environment, inspired by our friends at Surfers Against Sewage!
Make paper chains instead of using tinsel. Kids love to get involved, you can get inventive with designs and when you’ve finished with them you can store for next year!
There’s nothing more special than a home-made gift, be it hand knitted, baked, crafted, people love the time and thought that’s gone into it. No time to stitch? No problem! There are loads of home makers that would be overjoyed if you bought from them, search online for ethical producers to find some lovely gifts.
Shop for your Christmas produce at your local butcher, greengrocer and farm shop. Take your own containers and support your local high street.
Kids like bright, shiny plastics toys, but they break easily and are very hard to recycle once they are done with. Have a traditional Christmas with wooden toys, which are available from many online retailers. Lots of fun, long lasting and non-toxic. Plus they don’t have to be boring, from castles to xylophones, there’s all sorts of fun to be had.
Present tags! They shop bought ones aren’t usually recyclable. There’s brown kraft labels as an alternative. Or save last years Christmas cards and cut them up to make your own.
Decorations make us feel festive but aren’t always made from the best materials. How about a natural Christmas? Try florists, markets or even your local area to find mistletoe, holly, cinnamon sticks, and pine cones.
Look for gifts in your local shops, it keeps your environmental footprint down and they are more likely to use less plastics.
Use brown kraft paper to wrap gifts. Glitter is an environmental disaster, so decorate with twine, ribbon, holly, twigs, dried orange, the list goes on!
DIY crackers. You can choose the best worst jokes to go in, along with the prizes.
Give the gift of experience, what’s more valuable than that? Memberships, courses or days out are good for the soul as well as the environment. They might just find their passion because of you.
And remember, wine comes in glass bottles! Merry Christmas!
What are you doing to reduce waste this Christmas? We’d love to know! You can share this post using the buttons below to encourage more people to think about their waste this season!