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Little Green Space |
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Little Green Space |
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LITTLE GREEN SPACE Originally published in the Peak Advertiser on 15 December 2008
Christmas is my
favourite time of year. I love the decorations, the presents and the food.
This year, though, we are thinking carefully about the celebrations in our
house. There is so much to enjoy during the festive season – but at the
same time it can be more damaging to our environment than the rest of the
year put together. The good news is that
it’s easy to enjoy Christmas and still ease the pressure on our battered
old planet. Here are just a few simple ideas for a carbon-conscious
Christmas … I’m
Dreaming of a Green Christmas Around a billion
cards end up in the bin each Christmas. They take energy to produce and
then end up in landfill, creating nasty greenhouse gases. A simple
solution is charity e-cards, available from many organizations including
MacMillan and the Woodland Trust. Or buy a box set of e-greetings and
support Bakewell-based development charity Village Aid at www.charitygreetings.com/villageaidchristmas.
E-cards can be sent right up to Christmas Eve, so they’re great if
you’ve missed the post! In fact our
daughter’s school has asked children not to bring in cards at all this
year – instead they are collecting donations for the Ashgate Hospice.
How about organising something similar at work? The award-winning
conservation charity Trees for Life runs a card free Christmas scheme for
businesses. We reuse the cards we
receive by getting the children to make gift tags for next year: a great
rainy day activity for January! It’s
The Thought That Counts Every year most of us
receive at least a couple of unwanted gifts, often presented in needless
packaging. Each Christmas around 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging is
thrown away. Avoid adding to the problem by thinking carefully about your
choice of present. Christmas is the
perfect time to support our local businesses and shop locally.
Locally-produced food and drink make welcome gifts - you could
really go to town with a hamper of organic goodies from your local
farmers' market. Or try making your own foodie gifts, such as chutney,
chocolates, cakes or cookies. You could avoid a
wrapped present altogether. Cinema tickets, magazine subscriptions
or a day at a spa are great ideas. Teenagers will appreciate an iTunes
gift card. And membership of an organisation such as the National Trust or
English Heritage make good family presents. Some charities offer
animal sponsorship as a gift, such as WWF’s adopt a polar bear scheme.
Or why not a have a tree or a whole grove of trees planted for your loved
ones? Trees for Life and Little Green Space offer tree planting schemes. Gifts from charity
shops and catalogues benefit people other than the recipient of the gift.
And Oxfam Unwrapped has a great selection of charity gifts for those
people in our lives who really do have everything. Oh yes – when out
shopping for gifts, don’t forget to take some reusable shopping bags
with you! Deck
the Halls Strings of fairy
lights on the Christmas tree use a fairly small amount of energy, but
switch them off when there is no-one there to see them. For outdoors, you
could invest in some solar powered fairy lights, which will cost you
absolutely nothing to run and won't add to your carbon footprint. If you are shopping
for a new tree, a real Christmas tree is more environmentally-friendly
than an artificial one. Fake trees last for only six years on average but
take hundreds of years to break down in landfill. And they take an awful
lot of energy to produce. Most fake trees tend
to be manufactured in A better option is a
locally-grown tree from a Forest Stewardship Council accredited
grower. You will then be buying a completely renewable, carbon neutral
tree which has had the added benefit of providing a habitat for wildlife
species during its lifetime. When you have
finished with your tree, get it recycled - most local councils grind old
Christmas trees into mulch for parks and gardens. Find out about council
recycling schemes at www.letsrecycle.com.
If you buy a tree with the roots on, you can plant it in the garden and
reuse it next year. Real foliage
decorations such as holly, ivy and mistletoe are also much better
environmentally than their plastic counterparts - and by bringing fresh
greenery into your house you will be continuing a Christmas tradition that
is hundreds of years old. And
homemade decorations using chillies, popcorn, berries, dough, cinnamon
sticks and gingerbread can all be composted after Christmas. A
Seasonal Feast A traditional
Christmas dinner uses seasonal British food which can nearly always be
bought from a local producer. Try your local farmers' market or farm shop
for fresh, seasonal produce, and try to choose organic as non-organic
agriculture uses chemical pesticides and fertilisers, contributing to
climate change. Millions of sprouts
are sold in the week before Christmas - make sure you compost the peelings
from yours! Around a third of the food we buy ends up in the bin - what a
waste! By planning holiday meals carefully, and not over-buying, you can
save money and reduce the waste going to landfill. If you can find the
time to defrost your freezer it will work far more effectively, saving
energy and making more space to freeze those leftovers! Finally, avoid
disposable plates and cups, as they will just go straight to landfill.
Last Christmas around 90% of the country's waste was thrown away – even
though much of it could have been recycled. Visit www.savethenorthpole.org.uk
to find out why it is so important to tackle climate change. And, however
you celebrate this year, have a very merry Christmas! Penny
at Little Green Space |
