A is for artificial trees: These are not necessarily greener -
although they last far longer, they are made from plastic, not
recyclable or from a renewable source and have probably been
shipped great distances. There are also question marks over where
they are made and the labor used. Real trees also help to remove
carbon from the atmosphere while they are growing (more on real
trees below under C).
B is for batteries: New gifts at Christmas often mean that
households go through a lot of batteries. Batteries contain toxic
chemicals, are not biodegradable and are difficult to recycle. As
an alternative, use rechargeable batteries or try the new AA size
USB rechargeable batteries. By opening the cap and plugging into a
USB connector, you can recharge them pretty much anywhere.
C is for...
Candles: Paraffin candles are made from petroleum residue and
are no good for your health or for the environment. Candles made
from soy, beeswax or natural vegetable-based wax are more
eco-friendly because they biodegrade and are smoke-free.
Compost: Compost all your food peelings or get a wormery to help
break down the vegetable food waste into rich soil nutrition.
Clothes: More than 80,000 tons of old clothes will be thrown
away in the UK alone this Christmas, so if you do get a new
wardrobe, make sure you donate your old clothes to a local charity
shop.
Christmas trees: Real trees are the more eco-friendly choice, as
long as you consider where and how they have been grown. Make sure
you get one from a sustainable source. You could also choose a tree
with roots so that it can be replanted.
This post on www.smartplanet.com has
another suggestion: The best way to use a real tree, though, is to
use a live one. You can grow your own with a kit from Ecotopia -
although it might just be a bit late to start growing one for this
year.
Recycle your tree after Christmas. Six million trees brightened
up homes and offices across Britain last year, of which only 10
percent were recycled. The rest went into landfill, a wasted
opportunity to create biomass that would have provided nutrients
for depleted soil. Many local authorities and garden centres will
be recycling Christmas trees after the festive period.
D is for...
Decorations: Use recycled decorations. Or decorate your tree
with products that are fairly traded and ethically sourced. The
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has some ideas here. Or get
creative and make your own "ideas here".
Defrost your freezer before Christmas: It will work more
efficiently and create more space to store leftover food, so that
it doesn't go to waste.
E is for eco-bags: Use a cotton or jute shopper bag instead of
all that plastic.
F is for food shopping: For some horrifying statistics on how
much food we throw away, read this story.
By the time the ingredients that make up the average British
Christmas dinner arrive on our plates, they have traveled a
combined distance of 78,500 km. Turkeys from Europe, vegetables
from Africa, wine from the southern hemisphere, cranberries from
the US - the turkey and trimmings add up to the equivalent of 6,000
car trips around the world, new research from the University of
Manchester has found.
Buy an organic turkey. Ten million turkeys are eaten every
Christmas, so try to make sure it has been reared humanely. Buy
local or buy less. Produce bought locally means you will be
supporting small suppliers and the local community, while
minimizing your carbon footprint. Shop at a local farmers' market,
or try growing some of your own vegetables where possible.
Buy your fruit and vegetables loose and ditch all that wasteful
plastic packaging. Make sure the goods that are packaged are made
from recycled materials.
Buy drinks in bigger bottles rather than small ones. One large
bottle generates less waste than several smaller ones.
Try to avoid serving people with paper or plastic plates and
cups if you are entertaining.
Pack all your goods into a re-usable shopping bag or re-use old
plastic bags. Don't forget to put the vegetable peelings from your
Christmas dinner in your home compost bin.
K is for keeping your curtains closed: This may not be
applicable to Beijing, but very important elsewhere. Closed
curtains keep the heat in and save energy and money. And with all
those guests to entertain, more heat is going to be generated
anyway.
L is for lights: Christmas tree lights left on for 10 hours a
day over the 12 days of Christmas produce enough CO2 to inflate 12
balloons, so turn them off when they are not needed. If you want to
be more environmentally friendly, try switching to either LED
lights, choosing lights that are powered by solar power or
rechargeable batteries, or installing an energy-saving bulb to
offset the energy usage.
If you haven't already - make it a New Year's resolution to
switch to energy-efficient bulbs.
P is for...
Plastic-free: More than 17 billion plastic bags are handed out
by supermarkets in the UK alone a year - that's 300 for every man,
woman and child - causing more than 60,000 tons of plastic to go to
landfill sites (more on why plastic bags are so bad here).
Now and after Christmas, use a cotton eco-shopper or take old
plastic bags and reuse them. With retailers yet to get the message
on excessive packaging, try to avoid purchasing products and food
that are overpackaged.
Presents: Check out some of our ethical gift ideas. Buy durable
gifts and avoid buying or requesting presents that rely on
disposable parts like batteries. Try to look for alternatives, for
example, goods that are solar or wind-up powered.
Do you have to buy gifts? Could you buy an "experience" instead?
Try cinema tickets, club memberships, gift tokens. Sponsor an
animal, buy them some rainforest to protect - but don't give them
another unwanted gift that they will simply throw away.
R is for recycle: According to Recyclenow.com, English
households will throw out an additional 3 million tons - that's
five sacks of rubbish per family - over the festive period. Much of
this will be waste that could have been recycled. There are plenty
of tips on which materials you can recycle and how here.
T is for turning off your appliances: Turning your appliances
off at the mains, rather than leaving them on standby.
U is for using the right-sized pan: Use the right-sized pan for
the vegetables you cook, and only boil the kettle with the amount
of water you need.
W is for wrapping: This constitutes one of the biggest Christmas
wastes - the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs estimates that last year's wasted paper would be enough to
wrap up the Channel island of Guernsey. If we all recycled just
half of the 8,000 tons produced we'd save 25,000 trees.
Try wrapping your presents in brown or recycled paper (WWF has
some nice paper here), recycled foil or newspaper, and using string
or raffia (made from bark which regenerates) to tie it up.
So what will you be doing this Christmas? Have you got any more
tips?
And even if haven't, why not try to follow those give here for
the whole of next year. We could do at least that much to save the
planet.
Merry (green) Christmas!
(Agencies via China Daily December 24, 2007)