LowCGen

This Christmas we will produce an additional three quarters of a million tonnes of waste. As we are now well into the festive season why not take a moment to consider how you can do your bit for the environment by reducing Christmas waste?

Some interesting facts…

• The UK will create three quarters of a million tonnes extra waste this Christmas, which equates to 5 black bin bags per household. The equivalent in wasted energy would enable all households in Leeds and Doncaster to watch TV for a year (RecycleNow, 2008).

• In 2007 over 7 million Christmas trees were purchased and of those just 1.2million were recycled.

• The UK sends over 1 billion Christmas cards every year! This is the equivalent to 17 for every man, woman and child (Waste Online, 2008).

• Nearly 3000 tonnes of aluminium foil are used to wrap turkeys (Woodland Trust, 2008)

• Approximately 83km2 of wrapping paper will end up in UK landfill sites.

• Around 250 000 tonnes of plastic packaging will be discarded during the festive season (Waste Online, 2008).

Hints & Tips

Here are a few suggestions for how you can help reduce your Christmas waste:

• Cards – recycle your Christmas cards at Tesco, WHSmiths, M&S and TKMaxx to support the Woodland Trust. I like to re-use my Christmas cards by cutting them up and turning them into gift tags for next year’s presents.

• Trees – be sure to recycle your tree at your nearest council facility so that it can be turned into compost. Or better still; consider buying a potted tree that you can keep for next year.

• Decorations – when purchasing decorations try to source good quality products that can be used year after year. We still have decorations on our tree that were bought by my great grandmother!

• Wrapping paper – make sure you separate all your wrapping paper and card for recycling. If your council doesn’t offer a kerbside collection scheme these can easily be recycled at your local facility. Keep things like bags and ribbons to re-use next year.

• Food – plan your dinners and parties to avoid food waste. Try to buy drinks etc in large bottles to reduce packaging waste and source local produce as well. This needn’t be expensive if you shop at your local market.

• Presents – when purchasing gifts try to source durable, long-lasting products which avoid disposable components such as batteries. If batteries are required you could invest in rechargeable ones which would also save you money.

• Charities – If you have a friend who is not fussed about receiving big, expensive presents why not take a look at charity donation vouchers? A friend of mine was once given an acre of protected rainforest, which he was thrilled with! Don’t rule out charity shops as well to find the perfect gift. Last year I received a beautiful brand new Karen Millen dress (still with the original tags) which I later found out had cost just £4!

• Clothes – after the above, please don’t throw your unwanted clothes away!

• Recycled products – next time you’re out shopping for presents have a look at their recycled content. Remember it is vital that we support the market for recycled products if there is to be a demand for recyclable waste. Have a look at www.recycledproducts.org.uk for some ideas.

New Year’s Resolutions for 2010

This new year why not consider how your business can   reduce its carbon footprint and reduce waste going to  landfill. Choose one thing to change that will be easily achievable.

For example, if you are an office based business who use a lot of paper and printing you could provide desktop ‘TREEHUGGERS’ to collect paper for re-use and recycling. In our office we keep one by the printer so we can store scrap paper for printing internal documents.

If your office has a drinks machine you could introduce aluminium can recycling. Aluminium is one of the most valuable waste streams and the process in producing recycled cans uses 95% less energy. If all the aluminium cans in the UK were recycled there would be 14 million fewer dustbins (Waste Online, 2008).