Have yourself a green little Christmas

In the immortal words of Noddy Holder, it’s Chrissssstmaaaaas! It’s December and Christmas is looming. You can have a great Christmas and minimise your impact on the environment. Here are our three steps for December.

All I want for Christmas isn’t new!

Over the last month or so, you’ve probably been bombarded by those clever marketing chaps that work for your favourite brands. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Cyber Week has even become a thing. They all exist to extract the most possible money from us in the lead up to Christmas, encouraging us to buy new versions of things we already have and loads of things we don’t need.

Instead of buying new things that will be sent from miles away, you could find all you want for Christmas at your local charity shop or on a peer-to-peer selling site like Ebay or Vinted.

PeCAN will be holding a Christmas present exchange at Winton House in January. Find out more on their Facebook page. There may be similar events near you in the new year.

For tips on wasting less this Christmas, visit our website.

Rocking around the real Christmas tree

Have a happy holiday!

There’s some debate over which is most environmentally friendly – real Christmas trees or fake ones. The factors affecting it include how far the tree has travelled, how it’s made and how often you use it.

Artificial trees are likely to have been made in and shipped from China and be a mixture of plastic, PVC and metal. They will often also end up being burned for power with other waste when they’re looking a bit ragged. Apparently, a two-metre artificial tree has a carbon footprint of around 40kg.

Real Christmas trees take around 10-12 years to grow to six feet. During that time, they provide a habitat for wildlife and capture carbon from the atmosphere.

After use, the best thing that can be done is burning or wood chipping, which avoids the methane release associated with decomposing.

If you’re a garden waste customer, we’ll pick up your real Christmas tree at your first collection after Christmas or you can take it to your local tip (HWRC) yourself.

Ultimately, it’s up to you (and if you have a fake tree, keep using it) but it looks like the best option is a locally sourced, responsibly grown, potted real tree that you bring in for Christmas and take back outside afterwards.

Driving home for Christmas?

Hosting and visiting lots of family over the Christmas period will naturally lead to more energy use.

The Energy Saving Trust has some tips on reducing energy use over Christmas and here are our favourites:

• Keep the lids on your pans during cooking – it uses 10% less energy.
• With a full house and food in the oven, turn your thermostat down a couple of degrees, as you’re probably generating plenty of heat.
• Switch off your Christmas lights or put them on a timer if you’re out.
• Turn things off while you play a game of Twister
• If you’re driving home for Christmas, make sure your tyres are properly inflated to stay safe and reduce your fuel consumption.