Greening Christmas!

Have a more sustainable Christmas: last minute tips; and reminders.

REDUCE WASTE
Check out Buy Nothing Christmas. It describes itself as an initiative started by Canadian Mennonites but says its ‘open to everyone with a thirst for change and a desire for action. Buy Nothing Christmas is a stress-reliever, and more people need to hear about it. You can change your world by simply putting up one of the posters (or make your own) in your church, place of worship, home or work. Be sneaky about it if you have to. The point is to get people thinking. It’s an idea whose time has come, so get out there and make a difference’. You can download a Buy Nothing Christmas Information Kit here.
Also, have a look at ‘Not Buying it: My Year without Shopping’ by Judith Levine to see how she managed a purchase-free Christmas. The grownupgreen review of this book is here

Cards
Send e-cards, or get children to make their own. For e cards, try Wish a Wish and for a review of their services see the grownupgreen review.
Don’t foget to recycle the cards you receive.The Woodland Trust operates a nationwide scheme. You can recycle your cards from 2 to 31 January 2008 at (for example) Tesco, Marks & Spencer, TK Maxx and WH Smith. Just to remind you, 17 trees are saved for every tonne of paper recycled. Once received by the stores, under the Woodland Trust scheme, the cards will be collected and taken to regional distribution centres using existing transport links, baled and weighed. Then the cards will go to to paper mills where the paper is re-pulped, cleaned and turned into new paper products. Typically these are tissue products and photocopy paper.

Giftwrap
Last year, grownupgreen campaigned for retailers to source more sustainable giftwrap. We’re very pleased to say that the gug shop is stocking recycled wrapping paper (reduced now to 75p a sheet). Or, if you prefer, the shop also stocks Tradecraft gift wrap.

Presents
The gug shop is offering free delivery on orders over £50. Although its now too late to place an order for guaranteed Christmas delivery, if you order by 21 December (2pm) our friends in the gug shop will try and make sure your order reaches you by 31 December, in time for New Year ! Just enter the promotional code FSCS25 when you reach the gug store checkout. Discount code is valid until the 21st December 2007 (free delivery offer applies to mainland UK deliveries only).
Please continue to support grownupgreen with your purchases from our webstore – all products are ethical, Fairtrade or help with more sustainable living.
Have a look at the Efergy energy saving meter if you want to give a practical present; or what about a Fairtrade Media starter composting kit (good for helping to deal with Christmas food left-overs, or waste). Eco Balls are also on sale, and are reduced in price to £29.95.
What about making someone up a basket of energy-saving lightbulbs as a Christmas present? Imaginatively wrapped, they would make an excellent green gift. See gug shop light bulbs for more options – including purchase of the popular Biobulb. The gug shop also stocks Tradecraft baskets.

For another ethical approach, Oxfam Unwrapped offers working wonders and gifts that grow which include all the elements needed to help in overcoming poverty, suffering and the effects of environmental damage. So for example, when you give “bees” you actually give so much more – the chance for someone to keep bees, and get training and support to a livlihood as a bee-keeper. Water World helps bring scant resources to those most in need. Intrigued? You can order gifts from Oxfam Unwrapped up until 19 December. For more information, click here.

Trees
Waste not, want not! If you already have an artificial tree – keep using it! Glory in the cachet of having a vintage kitsch tinsel model from decades ago.
Envirowise advises that last year six million real Christmas trees took pride of place in British homes and offices. However, of those, only 10% were recycled and fewer than 5% planted to be re-used next year. You can buy trees with roots from garden centres which can be re-planted and hopefully you can keep it alive for next year.
Christmas tree lights left on for 10 hours a day over the 12 days of Christmas produce enough carbon dioxide to inflate 12 balloons. Offices tend to put the trees up even earlier, producing up to three times the carbon dioxide. At work, don’t leave Christmas tree lights on outside office hours. Envirowise warns that it’s a fire hazard as much as an environmental issue. You can now purchase LED Christmas lights which, as well as lasting longer than conventional lights, use 80% less energy. The gug shop has some solar powered decorative lights for £29.99.

RECYCLE
Defra recycling in the UK already saves the equivalent in greenhouse gas emissions of taking 3.5 million cars off our roads. That is because the virgin materials that would have been used in production are conserved, and the recycled materials that are used don’t go to landfill. Landfill is the worst environmental option for much of the waste produced in this country. The methane it produces is a potent greenhouse gas – judged to be 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide. However, we could do a lot better.
Be organised! Get a system sorted out now in your household for separating out waste (bottles, paper) and delegate rubbish sorting tasks. Where are you safely going to store your rubbish before you get a chance to dispose of it? Find out when your rubbish collection times are over the Christmas period; the location of local recycling centres’ opening times.

FOOD
Organic; Sustainable
Veg Box has a list of seasonally available vegetables and fruit, plus recipe ideas (including one for perfect roast parsnips ) and infomation about veg-box schemes across the UK. The Veg Box home page is here.
Shop local: see our news item on the Fife Diet; and a report from Deloittes on food & beverage trends. The Fife Diet.

CHRISTMAS PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Here are some quick links to travel timetables and notices for :
London.
Nottingham.
Greater Manchester.
Warwickshire.
National Rail.
Traveline (general bus, train, coach, ferry or underground services across the UK).

OTHER LINKS
gug feature: Getting Ready to Recycle after Christmas for more green ideas.
gug feature: Home recycling for information about buying a range of home recycling bins and compartmentalised containers.

Suzanne Phillips (last updated 20/12/07) - 17/12/07

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