€90m spent on trees, lights and decorations

A STAGGERING €90 million has been spent on buying and decorating real Christmas trees this year.

According to State-owned forestry organisation Coillte, up to 600,000 real Christmas trees were sold this December, while the Small Firms Association has estimated that to buy and decorate each tree costs about €150 on average. Multiplying the two figures together gives the possible maximum spend on Christmas trees.

A more conservative estimate from Coillte is that 450,000 trees were sold this year, although that still means €67.5m was spent on purchasing trees, fairy lights, baubles and other decorations.

Pat Delaney of the SFA said it had been estimated it costs €150 on average to buy and decorate a Christmas tree, a figure which goes some way towards the overall Christmas spend.

“We are looking at a €4 billion overall spend this Christmas and in the lead up to Christmas there was a spend in the region of €22m a day,” he said.

In Britain, supermarket giant Tesco has estimated that one-in-four households has an outdoor lights and decoration display outside their homes.

The sale of outdoor lights and decorations has reached record levels, with the sale of outdoor lights doubling to €50 million.

More than €50 million individual Christmas tree decorations were also expected to be sold in Britain this year, along with millions of flashing Santas.

A spokeswoman for Tesco said that while no specific figures were available for Ireland, the quantity of decorations sold here had doubled this year compared with last year.

But while the trees end up in the skip and the decorations disappear into the attic, packaging waste is set to reach record levels this Christmas season, according to Repak.

The voluntary initiative between industry and the Department of the Environment has launched a Green Christmas campaign but has already estimated that 95,000 tonnes of packaging waste will be generated this year.

It is estimated that 30% more waste is created at Christmas time, particularly in packaging.

A Repak spokesman also said some local authorities will install CCTV cameras near recycling centres and other areas to monitor people who dump additional waste in the wrong place.

The ESB has also estimated this year will be one of the most ‘high wattage’ Christmas seasons on record. The company has estimated that electrical power will surge to between 100 and 200MW this Yuletide, a huge output given that the old Ardnacrusha power generating station used to produce 90MW of electricity.