Eco-Friendly Christmas: Tips for your green Christmas celebration
The holiday season is a time for celebration and gifting, but we often overlook the amount of waste that is generated. The food waste, gift packaging waste, discarded Christmas lights, plastic decorating items, and other types of waste generated need our attention and action.
No, you don’t have to give up the holiday spirit to enjoy the season; instead, take a few eco-friendly steps to have a green Christmas. Here are a few tips for having an eco-friendly Christmas. This is by no means an exhaustive list; you can choose as many better alternatives as you like.
Tips for eco-friendly Christmas
1. Gifting
Have you been planning for Christmas gifts for a long time? And a long list might exceed the budget as well. This time, why not go for homemade gifts? You can try confetti soaps, books, candles, or maybe live plants- something that can be of use to your loved ones.
2. Gift wrapping and decoration
Don’t go for plastic gift wraps or ribbons that are neither recyclable nor hold any value. See here for a list of eco-friendly gift wrapping options to avoid plastic packaging.
3. Eco-friendly cards
Go for plantable cards or make one at home from recycled paper. Recycling paper at home is easy, and you can also add your preferred colour or theme to it.
4. Christmas Tree
Don’t go for a fake Christmas tree that’s made from PVC. Instead, buy or rent a real tree. Go to a local nursery and look for real trees, or maybe you can go for a potted tree as well.
5. Christmas lights
Reuse lights from previous seasons or what you already have at home. Get them repaired if needed, but don’t go buying new lights. And if you are buying a new one, go for LED lights as they are more energy efficient. Also, don’t forget to turn off these lights when not needed.
6. Reduce food wastage
Be food conscious. Hosting parties might require food in large quantities, but try to make food in optimal quantity only. Also, if you have food in excess, you should donate the food.
7. Source food locally
Consume what is already available in your area. Here the point is not to go vegan for Christmas but to have what will easily be available. Shipping from a distance, whether plant-based or animal-based, contributes to GHGs. So stock up on seasonal and locally available foods.
8. Don’t go for disposable cutlery for party
Single-use cutlery is a great relief for you but not for the environment. But if that’s your convenience, then choose eco-friendly disposable cutlery. Don’t worry; this won’t look odd and will purely serve the purpose. But, did you know there are startups that provide cutlery on rent for parties? That could be a convenient option as well.
Again, this list is not the limit for your eco-friendly Christmas celebration. There might be several other instances where you might encounter non-biodegradable things like grocery bags, polyester clothing, packed food wrappings, and many other things. Here, our main motive is to create awareness and reduce your carbon footprint this season as much as possible.
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