Sustainable Christmas Tips

The most magic time of the year... but does it have to cost the Earth? 🌎

Christmas is a time of joy and indulgence, but is there a way to keep you and your family's impact to a minimum?

We have put together our most savvy tips to keep our Christmas as kind to our planet as possible!

1. Only buy what you'll actually eat

We all love indulging at this precious time - tucking into Christmas dinner (...and then plates two and three) followed by pudding, is all part of the celebrations!

However, Christmas also produces a phenomenal amount of waste: If Christmas food waste could be recycled into energy, it could power an average home for 57 years!

With 10 million turkeys consumed every year in the UK (and two million going to waste) over 3,000 tonnes of turkey packaging will be produced. This packaging is then also extremely hard to recycle - making it a minefield for us consumers.

A turkey also takes a huge amounts of energy to cook... producing up to 4,000 tonnes of CO2! The larger your turkey therefore, the more CO2 which is going to produced. Buying just enough to feed all of you therefore, is the most responsible thing to do.

It is also estimated that 4.2 million Christmas dinners are thrown away every single year... Not only is all of this waste awful, but with there average family's Christmas dinner costing an estimated 23 kg of CO2, it is tremendously damaging to buy more than needed and then waste over the festive period.

2. Buy Local

Buying local, both for the communities and the environment, is more important now than ever. Need any eco-gift inspiration? Check out this blog post!

Purchasing locally (and not internationally posting gifts) is not only one of the easiest ways to give loved ones unique and thoughtful gifts - but also reduce your carbon footprint!

When ordering gifts online, consider using slower posting options. Some places even offer "Eco" delivery! Do you need it tomorrow? Or would the next day make any difference? Something to consider! This is also an extremely easy way to reduce your carbon footprint over this festive period!

3. Buy less

How many gifts do we all receive, every year, which either goes in the cupboard to never be seen again... or in the bin? This year, consider only buying food, gifts, cards, decorations... which you will use and cherish for festive seasons to come!

Be Part of the Solution!

As well as all of this... for only £6.00 this December, you can create and entirely carbon neutral Christmas! Follow https://bit.ly/3pZDfyr to find out how!

Do you have any more tricks and tips? Comment below or on Instagram @zerosmartuk!