This article first appeared in the December 2006/January 2007 edition of Pure Yorkshire magazine
I’m not sure if we’ll receive any Christmas cards this year. Last December, in a bid to be more environmentally friendly, I cut right back on greetings cards and gave the equivalent amount to the Pakistan earthquake appeal. I sent my friends festive emails, explaining that I’d paid for a tent for refugees instead, but I can’t stop the nagging doubt they’ll think I’m an old skinflint.
It can be tough flying in the face of tradition. My only consolation is that, if I’m off their Christmas list, it will at least make a tiny dent in the 1.7 billion Christmas cards we in the UK send annually, an amount equivalent to almost a quarter of a million trees. In Lapland, the old forests that support the reindeer have been almost destroyed to supply timber for the paper industry. If we keep on sending cards at this rate, Rudolph will become extinct and Santa will have to run his sleigh on bio fuel.
Sadly, the season of goodwill is also a season of excess, and it’s not doing our planet any good. Once the plastic toys and battery-powered gadgets have been ripped open, the discarded wrapping paper alone would cover an area larger than Guernsey. Then there’s all the packaging, the drinks bottles, the food waste and the Christmas trees … it all adds up to an estimated 3 million tonnes of extra rubbish going to landfill. And that’s before you factor in all the waste generated to produce a diamante Bratz doll in the first place.
So what can you do? I contemplated wrapping my daughter’s presents in pages from the colour supplements but it was hard to find one that didn’t have a shocking headline or a revealing picture. Luckily I keep a drawer of old and only-slightly-torn used wrapping paper, which meant that some of her gifts said ‘A New Baby!’ or ‘Wedding Congratulations’, but hey, she was going to rip it straight off again anyway.
I’m cheered to discover that you can buy recycled wrapping paper and recycled cards. It is important not only to recycle but also to close the loop by buying recycled products. If you want something different, The Exotic Paper Company sells 100 per cent recycled cards containing elephant dung, or go to the World Wildlife Fund’s online shop, Earthly Goods, which has both cards and recycled gift wrap (hooray – my friends might get cards after all!).
If you want to get a present that doesn’t cost the earth (literally), buy your child an animal adoption kit while you’re at it. A real live tiger or a dolphin for Christmas – safely in its natural habitat – is bound to be popular and the good news is, you don’t have to wrap it.
Ethical gift giving is huge now, though I admit this isn’t for everyone. My mother was quite disgruntled when she received a certificate for a tree planted in her name (it was too much like a premature memorial). But if you do think friends or family members will appreciate the gesture, Oxfam Unwrapped has a varied range of packages that will really make a difference to people’s lives, whether you want to send an alpaca, a set of buckets or an emergency shelter.
Looking for something to go under the tree? Here in Yorkshire, a Huddersfield-based company is leading the way in producing quality, original products made from recycled products. Revolve (By Cutouts) has a funky selection of Christmas present alternatives, from key rings made from carrier bags and organisers made from recycled juice cartons to notebooks made from circuit boards and coasters from coffee cups.
Graham Noble, a former accountant, set up the business in a converted textile mill near Golcar in 1995, motivated by ‘complete disillusionment with the amount of waste we’re producing’. The company uses industrial and consumer recycling waste, including some from local sources, and designs and manufactures the products itself. They can be ordered direct from Revolve’s website and are also stocked in branches of John Lewis, as well as Shared Earth in York and Leeds, the RHS shop at Harlow Carr Gardens in Harrogate and the Alternative Technology Centre at Hebden Bridge.
Revolve also operates a fun website for children called the Greenie Weenies, with animated characters and stories, and has some hilarious information about its HQ (look out for Spiderman scuttling up the wall and the Father Ted horse).
‘It’s important to keep the green message light-hearted,’ says Graham. ‘Nobody, least of all a Yorkshireman, is going to listen to you lecturing them.’
I’ll raise a (recycled) glass to that. Happy Christmas!
Top Tips
- Recycle your Christmas cards through the Woodland Trust’s collection points (at branches of Tesco and W H Smith). Save the stamps and give them to a local charity or an Oxfam shop.
- Save and reuse envelopes and wrapping paper. If they’re unusable, crumple into balls and put aside for adding to the compost heap (but not shiny metallic paper).
- Take cardboard packaging to a household waste recycling centre (some supermarkets now have facilities for recycling cardboard packaging, too). Cardboard can also be composted; tear into strips and scrunch it up first.
- Buy a UK-grown real Christmas tree with roots that can be planted in your garden or a pot for the following year. Alternatively, chop it up afterwards and leave it under a hedge in your garden to create a wildlife habitat. Local authorities usually offer a chipping service.
- Gift vouchers (consider cinema and theatre ticket vouchers, as well as book and shop vouchers), membership of an organisation and magazine subscriptions make great presents and don’t create any packaging.
Information
Recycled stationery and cards are available from The Green Stationery Company (www.greenstat.co.uk), The Exotic Paper Company (www.elliepoopaper.co.uk), Recycled Paper Supplies (www.rps.gn.apc.org) and the World Wildlife (www.wwf.org.uk)
For more tips on recycling, go to www.recyclenow.com or www.wastewatch.org.uk
Revolve (By Cutouts) www.revolve-uk.com
Oxfam Unwrapped www.oxfamunwrapped.com