Have Yourself a Green Christmas
Christmas may be the season to be jolly, but it’s also the least eco-friendly time of year, with an extra 30 per cent of waste created each festive season! But you don’t need to be a Grinch to have a Green Christmas. Dacorum Borough Council have shared with us their top tips to help you ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’, so you can enjoy the festive season without spoiling the planet.
Sensible Shopping
Poorly picked presents are likely to be thrown away. Choose presents with durability so that they can be enjoyed again and again, and don’t forget to take your reusable shopping bags out with you!
That’s a Wrap!
Over 8000 tonnes of wrapping paper is used in the UK each Christmas – that’s enough to wrap around the equator nine times! And each year, one billion festive cards go to landfill which could have been recycled.
- Give presents in reusable gift boxes, bags or cloth instead of using gift wrap
- If you do buy gift-wrap and send cards, choose paper that is made of recycled materials and with no glitter so that it can be recycled afterwards.
- Send e-greetings instead through social media and email.
- Reuse decorations you already have, buy second-hand instead of new, or make your own with friends and family.
Tis the season to recycle
- On the big day, be prepared, have a recycling bag at the ready when it is time to swap prezzies for any gift-wrap or recyclable packaging
- Make sure your guests know which one is the recycling bin and what can go in it
- Recycle all food waste in your caddies, not your grey bin. This includes cooked or raw vegetables, bones and skins, plate scrapings, tea-bags, egg shells, etc.
Festive Recycling Guide
In your blue-lidded bin you can recycle:
- Condiment jars (rinsed out)
- Sweet tins and biscuit tubs and trays
- Aluminium foil sweet wrappers, mince pie cases and trays (try and recycle aluminium foil in a tennis-ball sized lump if possible)
- Food, drink and aerosol cans (empty)
- Cartons (such as Tetra Pak)
- Plastic and glass bottles
- Wrapping paper and greetings cards (without glitter or 3D decorations)
- Cardboard packaging
You can find out about Christmas recycling or general recycling and get more green Christmas tips on the council website. Alternatively, call 01442 228000 and ask for Waste Services.