Tips For Preventing Excess Packaging Waste At Christmas
Christmas is a great time of year; you can spend lots of time with your family and loved ones, exchange gifts and indulge in a feast that ultimately leaves you full for the following weeks. Although we don’t want to put a dampener on any festivities, it’s worth remembering that we do all need to work towards preventing excess packaging waste to help climate change.
Opportunities To Reduce Wasted Packaging
1. Use Recycled Paper!
This year, opting for paper instead of traditional wrapping paper is not only becoming a fashion, but it is a step towards helping out the environment. Use brown paper or old newspapers to add a retro and eco-friendly touch to your gifts, which in turn will save you some extra pennies. If you make sure to fasten the wrapping with string rather than using Sellotape, it will be entirely recyclable too!
Despite the fact sending cards is sentimental, receivers typically throw them away immediately after they have read them. So, try and restrict the number of cards you send this Christmas!
You can have fun decorating your homemade wrapping paper with string, as well as any other natural and organic items that you find.
Since David Attenborough has recently announced that climate change is “our greatest threat in thousands of years” and told delegates that they must act fast, it has fuelled many people to embark on eco-friendly ventures to better the world and preserve it for longer.
He further claimed that “climate change is the single most important issue we face” and in coherence, it was suggested that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at the rate they are then it is expected that at the end of the century we will see an increase of a huge 3 degrees in temperature more than it was before the renowned industrial revolution.
Therefore, it is more important than ever to start reducing, reusing and recycling and what better time to start than now – Christmas!
2. Purchase Products With Less Packaging!
This year as you shop through the hustle and bustle of Christmas, try and only opt for products with far less packaging! After all, the items wrapped up in these are only going to be opened immediately and the packaging will be discarded.
Although this may be difficult if the gift you know someone really wants or you desire to buy is covered in lots of packaging, but if you can just cut down on the number of gifts that you buy which come with lots of plastic around them, this will still be a beneficial step.
So, how much packaging do we actually waste annually?
According to an article in the Independent, in Britain we will waste around 108 million rolls of wrapping paper, and from a poll of 2,000 adults it was found that as a nation we will use over 40 million rolls of Sellotape as well as an astonishing 100 million black plastic bags full of all of the packaging that comes from the toys!
That is why we are strongly urging people to move away from packaging, especially as it takes up to 1000 years for it to decompose in landfills.
3. Bake Some Edible Gifts
This Christmas, why not have some fun in the kitchen with your family or friends and bake up some edible gifts? Gift exchanging is such an amazing feeling and is now such an important element of the festive period.
You can make biscuits, cakes, mince pies, chocolate log, or whatever you and your family enjoy, and even personalise them for each individual.
4. Make Your Own Decorations
With Christmas being a magical time of year fit for spending time with all the family, why not use old materials that you would be throwing away to make some decorations. Old lightbulbs look great as baubles and Christmas cards can be used to create themed bunting to put up around your house.
5. Give Gifts In Reusable Bags
Finally, this year when you give your gifts, don’t use too many bags by putting a number of presents into one bag. In addition to this, choose a bag that is reusable, so it is an additional gift to the special person you give it to.
You could even opt for taking your own reusable shopping with you over the festive period, so you can carry your gifts around without having to buy any more bags.
Reusable bags are a step towards helping the planet, so be a part of it this Christmas!
Hopefully, these top tops have given you inspiration for preventing excess packaging waste this Christmas so that we can become more eco-friendly as a nation. Get in touch with our friendly team for any advice or help with your Christmas packaging, today.