Christmas is the time of year to spread some joy, spend time with friends and family,enjoy yummy food, maybe a few drinks, parties, carols, and pretty lights.

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But there is a dark side to Christmas . . . unnecessary waste and destructive behaviour!  

·       27,000 miles of wrapping paper is used each year in the UK alone

·       Only 1% of consumer goods are still in use 6months later

·       One billion Christmas cards end up in the bin each year

·       The amount of wrapping paper used to wrap Christmas presents is enough to go around the globe nine times!

·       The equivalent of 2 million turkeys end up in the bin each year

·       500 tonnes of fairy lights are thrown away each year

·       Five million Christmas puddings hit the bin each year

·       One in ten unwanted Christmas presents ends up in landfill

·       We waste around 250,000 tonnes of food each Christmas

·       The UK generates the weight of 3.3 million emperor penguins in plastic waste each Christmas

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So, let's all make a Christmas wish and pledge to have a more sustainable Christmas this year. Here are some top tips on how, from Thrive Tribes Environmental Ambassadors:

Danielle’s top tips:

§ Re-use decorative paper and boxes/bags that you've collected in the last year to wrap your Christmas gifts

or

§ Look for recyclable paper and recyclable sellotape when buying new

Emma’s top tips:

§ Gift a tree this Christmas. Emma will be doing this through Creating Tomorrow'sForests for her children - only £5 per tree. Also, a great idea for a Secret Santa gift.

Maddy’s top tips:

§ Transform your leftovers into another tasty meal. You can also freeze them if you can't finish it all.

§ Use paperless cards - send an E-card to your relatives. This will reduce your carbon footprint and save trees.

Karlee’s top tips:

§ Buy a potted Christmas tree and keep it for future years, repot it as it grows or plant it in your garden

§ Use LED Christmas lights or decorations. LED bulbs consume less power per unit (lumen) of light emitted. This reduces greenhouse emissions from power plants. Carbon dioxide emissions for LEDs are also low.

Morgan’s top tip

§ If you eat meat, try choosing organic and free-range, and support local and small-scale farming wherever possible.

Cat’s top tips:

§ Many places, such as garden centres now offer a Christmas-tree hire service over the festive season. They'll often even deliver and collect the tree to save you the hassle. And the tree can carry on growing after it's returned. You can make sure it's grown sustainably by looking for either the FSC or Soil Association logo.

§ Cut down on the food waste. When you're out food shopping, try and choose things that are light on packaging, or buy loose items and only buy enough to cater for your needs.

§ An alternative to wrapping paper can be a scarf. Two gifts in one and no paper in sight. For ideas on how to wrap a gift indifferent ways with a scarf , follow this link CLICK HERE.

Tom’s top tips:‍

§ Consider gifting experiences rather than physical items, particularly plastic toys or fast fashion

Our planet is for life, not just for Christmas.

By making small changes we can give the planet the best gift.

A sustainable Christmas.

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