While I am as likely as anyone to moan about Christmas trees and lights going up as early as September, there is a benefit to thinking about Christmas earlier than usual. With some fore planning you can make this typically expensive (both in the financial and carbon sense) period of the year be a lot less so whilst not losing out on any of the fun. The key is planning and making conscious choices as often as possible. So let’s explore three key components to the choices you make in relation to Christmas:
One of the easiest ways to reduce your CO2e footprint around the holiday period is to think carefully about the presents you’re buying. We’ve all been at the receiving end of yet another set of cosmetics, jumper or gadget that we either didn’t need or won’t use very often. Quite possibly you’ve been at the giving end too! A survey by YouGov has found that over half (57%) of Brits who celebrate Christmas receive at least one unwanted gift on average at this time of year. Money wise, that’s a whopping £1.4bn spent on average! See what your presents-driven footprint might be using our handy calculator below.
To save on this inevitable waste, why not agree with family and friends to ban unnecessary Christmas presents or at least limit the spend on it. You probably do it with work colleagues as part of secret santa and still have a lot of fun, so why not with your family? This article by Zerowaste Scotland has more tips on sensible presents. It’s one potentially awkward conversation, but the savings are enormous.
And if you’re reading this blog, it’s safe to assume you are concerned about the carbon footprint implications too. According to the UK’s committee for climate change, emissions from waste were 19.9 million tonnes of CO2e (MtCO2e) in 2016, an increase of 0.9 MtCO2e from 2015.
Another way to do this is to create a simple list of people you’re probably going to gift something to and through the year think about what you might give them. You will be amazed by the ideas that come through and how much more meaningful (and potential inexpensive) those gifts will be. Use a list tool that can sit in your internet browser like ToDoIst or Pocket as a way to enable this right from your browse.
Most people will be zipping around making the obligatory visits to friends and family. But is it possible to spend more quality time in fewer different places this year? Can your family agree to take it in turns to host everyone each year? Not only will this reduce the direct footprint from driving around to the various houses, but it’s quite likely this will reduce waste too! Instead of having five grand meals in three different houses, won’t three in two houses suffice?
Having an electric or hybrid car alone isn’t enough - not only is electricity production less green in the winter, extreme cold severely reduces the battery capacities of many electric cars.
And if you have to fly anywhere, do consider offsetting it. To calculate the footprint of your flights go here.
With food it’s pretty simple - don't waste, because each time you do waste food, you’re adding to the problem. Waste borne CO2e emissions make up for 4% of the UK’s overall footprint, mainly due to methane emissions from the decomposition of biodegradable waste in landfill sites. And given how the excesses of a large Christmas meal inevitably lead to a lot of leftover food, which at some point goes bad or becomes in tolerable, limit the number of these massive meals!
When it comes to trees, the decisions are a bit more complicated. The British Christmas Tree Growers Association estimates that 7 million real trees are purchased by Britons every year which is not ideal. But on the other hand the vast majority of artificial trees are made in China and shipped here which has its own major impact. Particularly since environmental regulations there are almost a non-starter. So if you can buy a real tree do so, and when you do use the association’s website to try and get one that was grown locally.
But the best thing to do from a long term sustainability point of view might be to buy a potted living tree and watch it grow over the years. Once the festive period is over you can take the decorations off, leave it in the garden, shower it with love and bring it back in come next year. Here’s Plantabox on caring for a christmas tree.
If you can only use an artificial tree, please re-use it over a few years (the UK average is around 5 years) and make an extra effort to get high quality LED fairy lights that last longer.
Finally, another tradition we recommend moving on from is Christmas crackers. Do you really need all the plastic-y 'tat' (as one of our users described them) to come along with the essential Christmas 'joke'? Here is one long list of them -take it in turns to read them out and have more laughs and groans than usual, without adding to our local landfill!
To help you make your choices we’ve built a calculator to show you the cost - both in money and carbon footprint - of your various choices.
(If you are flying this Christmas, please use the flight based calculator)
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