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Top tips for an Eco Christmas

By Hayley Beckett on 2nd December 2024

Eco Christmas Tips

Christmas is a wonderful time of year when we gather together to celebrate the Birth of Jesus. However modern day festivities often sadly produce a lot of waste and carbon emissions. Here are a few tips from the Eco Church enablers to help make your Christmas more Green

Presents:

Why?

In the UK gift related waste is a significant environmental issue. It is estimated that an extra 300,000 tonnes of plastic waste is generated annually during the holiday season. 30% more waste being produced than an average month, with much of it being non-recyclable. Further estimates suggest up to a third of gifts are left unused or get discarded. This waste can add up to millions of tonnes of avoidable landfill contributions. The carbon footprint and wastage of clothing is particularly huge, and accounts for around 10% of all global emissions.

What can we do?

• Consider reducing the amount of gifts given
• Consider buying second hand items, to give existing goods a new lease of life. Charity shops, Ebay, Facebook marketplace, and Vinted are all good places to look before buying new, and may also be considerably less costly.
• Make your own gifts or consider a living plant gift
• Consider where gifts have come from, buying locally produced items from small businesses with an eco ethos is always better than a plastic wrapped gift that has been shipped here.
• Consider a donation to charity, or vouchers and gift experiences instead of physical goods

Wrapping Paper:

Why?

It is estimated that over 227,000 miles of wrapping paper are used each year. Much of this is glittery or alongside sellotape and bows contain plastics that are not easily recyclable.

What can we do?

• Consider using material wrap that can be reused again and again, an example is recycled Sari Bags, a material bag, scarves, or material fat quarters that can be tied Japanese furoshiki style or with string.
• Use paper that can be recycled, with paper tape.

Food:

Why?

As we can see from the following graph, greenhouse gas emissions generated by meat and dairy, are vastly more than vegetarian and vegan options. We recognise it is a big change for people to alter their diets, however if everyone on the planet ate the same way we do in the UK, we would actually need 3 planet earths to sustain us. Making small changes such as changing from cows milk to plant milk can help us adapt gradually.

What can we do?

• Reduce our intake of meat and dairy products, particularly beef, lamb and cheese.
• Consider having more vegetarian or vegan options for Christmas dinner and Christmas events. Try simple swaps like plant butter instead of real butter, Vegetarian dishes instead of beef/lamb, oat milk instead of cows milk.
• To avoid plastic, consider farmers markets, greengrocers and veg box schemes.
• There are lots of resources, vegetarian cookbooks, and online groups to help encourage us to try more plant based alternatives.
• Use your LOAF when buying food products
• Buy LOCAL from farmers markets, greengrocers, butchers, small businesses
• Buy ORGANIC to reduce the amount of chemicals being used on food
• Buy ANIMAL FRIENDLY to ensure good animal rearing practices are being followed
• Buy FAIRTRADE to help ensure workers are being paid fairly, have good working conditions and companies are working towards environmental management plans, helping farmers adapt to climate change.
• Importantly try and use up the food you buy, make recipes with Christmas dinner leftovers, use apps like Olio to give away food you don’t need to local people, or ensure food waste goes for composting rather than landfill.

Christmas Trees

Real tree vs plastic tree. Studies suggest that real trees tend to have a smaller overall environmental footprint, when they are grown locally, and disposed of sustainably eg composting. For plastic trees to be eco friendly they need to be used for several years (ideally 10+yrs) but even then the environmental impact is still higher in terms of of energy used to manufacture and dispose of them.

What can we do?

• Hire a tree – In some areas there are companies that keep Christmas trees alive and hire them out once a year to households for example https://www.hallingburychristmastrees.co.uk/
• Buy a tree with a rooting system, that you can keep alive in the garden in between Christmases.
• Buy a real tree but ensure it is composted correctly
• Look for a second hand plastic tree

Christmas Cards:

Reports suggest around 1 billion Christmas cards are bought in the UK each year, leading to around 300,000 extra tonnes of card and paper waste post the holiday season each year.

What can we do?

• Consider purchasing cards only for those people you don’t see regularly
• Send digital e-cards instead
• If you belong to a church/school/organisation consider a joint card that everyone can sign and give a donation to charity for being included in the card
• Buy cards that can be easily recycled/ and made from recycled materials
• Reuse the cards you receive for gift tags, or other craft projects

Christmas Crackers:

In the UK each year, its estimated that 300 million crackers are bought and used each year, with a large portion of these crackers ending up in the trash after the holiday season. Christmas crackers are often made from plastic and non recyclable materials.

What can we do?

• Reduce use of Christmas crackers
• Buy material crackers that can be re-used (you can a variety of these on Etsy) or craft markets.
• Buy sustainable crackers made from Recycled or recyclable card materials

 Supporting Nature

Winter can be a difficult time for many birds, small mammals and insects. We can help them by keeping our bird feeders and wildlife feeders stocked up, and water containers free of ice. More information can be found here from the Woodland Trust: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2023/12/10-ways-to-help-wildlife-in-winter/

Campaigning

This Christmas an important piece of proposed legislation called The Climate and Nature Bill is being introduced to parliament. This Bill was introduced by Caroline Lucas MP of the Green Party, and aims to tackle climate change, and reverse the decline of biodiversity in the UK.

The Bill aims to:

• Introduce legally binding targets to move towards Net zero emissions by 2050
• Proposes clear and coherent strategies to reduce emissions across various sectors including transportation, energy, agriculture and industry.
• Setting targets for nature recovery and halt the decline of species and habitats
• Aims to reverse the damage to ecosystems caused by deforestation, pollution, and unsustainable agricultural practices. Including supporting sustainable farming, promoting rewilding and and protecting and expanding nature reserves.
• Set up independent bodies to monitor and track the Governments performance on meeting climate and nature targets, and make it a legal obligation for the Government to take action to protect the environment.
• May include provisions for engaging the public in decision making via people assemblies.
• Promote creation of the green economy, and more green sector employment
• Emphasize the use of nature based solutions such as planting trees, restoring wetlands, to address both climate and biodiversity challenges.

What Can we do?

Please could we urge you to write to your Local MP over the Christmas holiday season, and ask if they would support this important legislation which is due to be debated again in the House of Commons on the 24^th January. You can more information and a template letter here to help you with this:  https://action.zerohour.uk/

We wish you a wonderful blessed and more sustainable Christmas time!

For more information contact: Eco Church enablers – ecochurch@easternbaptist.org.uk

Baptist Union Environmental Network (BUEN)https://www.baptist.org.uk/Groups/349559/Contact_us.aspx        

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