How to have an eco-friendly Christmas
EDIT THE XMAS LIST. Being discriminating doesn’t make you a Scrooge. File picture: iStock
WE could find plenty of reasons to be less than cheerful this Christmas, but we have a lot to fight for — not least the future of our environment.
Try to incorporate a little positive, intelligent, sustainable thinking in the fun and bustle of Christmas this year — it could be the greatest gift of all to you and your family for 2021 and beyond.
According to the EPA’s brilliant initiative Stop Food Waste (stopfoodwaste.ie) —avoidable food waste costs an average household about €700 a year. Rather than dealing with it when every invisible centimetre of the fridge is heaving with spontaneous buys, walk this madness back to the point of planning and buying.
Online shopping can cut down on expensive distraction. This Seasonal Food Calendar will show you will guide your choices from field to plate to bring the family superb Irish grown produce that is as fresh as possible: exa.mn/StopFoodWaste
The estimated average household spend on presents alone was €2,800 in 2019, enough to wring the ho-ho-ho from the most festive heart. Edit your gifting to your nearest and dearest. An eCard with a donation towards a charity such as St Vincent de Paul, or a handmade card fashioned from a folded piece of card stock glued with any child’s drawing — will touch the heart. Try the Smile Box eCard Maker, smilebox.com
GIY founder and presenter of RTÉs Grow Eat Cook, Michael Kelly says: “I think most people are focussing on the things that really matter for Christmas this year— there’s a chance the normal habits of bonkers consumption will be tempered a little and we could live a little more lightly. Buy a living Irish tree, even better if it’s a potted one that can be replanted in January. Shop local for the Christmas dinner — ideally, get an organic turkey from a local farmer’s market."
Use the downtime to reconnect mindfully with nature — your local beach, woods, or your back garden. GIY has a range of sustainable gifts for every age group and price bracket including ‘Growbox’ kits for the novice grower and the award-winning GIY’s Know-it-Almanac — illustrated by Fatti Burke, shop.giy.ie
Most foil wrap does not recycle. Furoshiki is wildly trending and if you're wondering what I'm on about — it is the Japanese art of wrapping gifts in fabric. Buy devoted furoshiki material or use remnants adding decoration (sewn or printed) to bring some Christmas magic. Printing blocks and rollers are available in Tiger and many crafting outlets. Aim to do away with any signs of tape, or artificial ribbons for a final finish where the wrapping is part of the present. Follow Mari Kondo here: exa.mn/GiftWrap
Glitter used on crackers, decorations, and festive flowers are petro-chemical based, non-recyclable micro-plastics and end up in our landfills and oceans in worrying small pieces that can be ingested in wildlife. Retailers, including Tescos, M&S, and Boots are rejecting synthetic glitter products on single-use products in favour of edible flash for 2020.
Be considerate of the glitter, tinsel, and foil goods you buy. Cherish and reuse them season after season. Find out more about pointless packaging, how to tailor and control that recycling at repak.ie. Calculate how green your Christmas tree really is here with this brilliant tool from PhD student Jack Bowater of AGH University of Science and Technology in Poland: exa.mn/ZeroWasteTree
Shorten the carbon journey and enjoy everything our Irish producers and suppliers have to offer with healthy, organic foodstuffs in minimal or eco-friendly packaging. There’s a wealth of goods that make a superb and highly personal gift, much of it, right there online.
"Christmas shouldn't cost the earth. A bottle of organic olive oil, some warming winter teas, a jar of sweet Irish honey, or vegan-friendly treats will be enjoyed and shared around the table, rather than languishing in landfill," says Odhran Kelly, director at Nourish Health Food Stores. "Choose products with minimal packaging from your local foodie store or market."
Dovetail your own consumption into savvy storage and canny cooking. Soft vegetables from Christmas dinner can be pureed into rich nourishing soups. Fruit and leftover yogurt and crème fraiche can be whizzed into smoothies in seconds. Hand blenders from Russell Hobbs start from €17.70, Argos.
No-one wastes less than Darina Allen. Try her for post-Christmas roasting tin dinners and one-pan desserts, Kyle Books, €28.
Whether you favour online, in person, a chain-store or independent retailer, explore their environmental credentials. I asked Søstrene Grene what it was committed to in the coming year, and the answer in a new Responsibility Report is cheering: “By the end of 2022, all furniture, toys, and kitchenware of wood must be made from FSC-certified wood.”
This is the perfect time for drawing close to create decor with real emotional pull. Use honest, compostable, found, and reusable materials. Keep cuttings from the Christmas tree and hunt for variegated ivy in the garden or woods. Use long lengths and a florist’s wireframe to fashion a wreath for a door or table. Insert sprigs of pine cuttings, dried fruit, cinnamon sticks and wind in some battery-operated LEDs with faux berries. For medieval fruit pomanders, ginger-bread creatures, and thousands of ‘woke’ ideas for age-appropriate decorating — adventure through Pinterest and Instagram.
The central heating is chuffing away, the house is lit up like the Starship Enterprise and fairy lights are festooned over every window reveal. We're naughty rather than nice in terms of energy use come December. A simple plug-in timer switch can pop lights on before the kids get home and knock them out after bed. Conventional bulbs cost five times the power to run compared to low-wattage strings and LEDs (Electric Ireland). A typical 100 LED string using less than 20W per hour. Make friends with your smart switches and heating controls. Excavate the instructions from the man-drawer — or find a PDF with a quick Google search.
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