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Try to not use wrapping paper this Christmas. Think about the amount of wrapping paper you throw away on Christmas Day alone! According to Zero Waste Canada, Canadians send about 540,000 tonnes of gift wrapping and gift bags to the landfill each holiday season. Most wrapping paper cannot be recycled because of the dyes, lamination and glitter on it or the tape attached. Instead of using these single-use materials to wrap presents, try using Christmas cloth bags, paper grocery bags, newspaper, or at the very least, recyclable, brown, undyed wrapping paper. Make ribbons out of pieces of colourful old clothes to decorate your gifts! It looks just as lovely with an added simplistic, environmental touch that will spark a conversation on zero-waste initiatives on Christmas morning. My family is fortunate to have had our Grandma make Christmas patterned cloth bags, that we have been reusing our entire childhood! Reusable is always the best!
Don’t buy fast fashion. Christmas is often a time where people treat themselves with clothing. The fast fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world, second only to oil. The textiles are made with horrible pesticides and chemicals. Dyes are contaminating into the oceans, killing and distorting organisms that are very important to humans. Polyester is made from petroleum based products and releases micro plastics into waterways and the air. Try mending your own clothing or buying products from second hand or thrift stores. A store called turn-about is an amazing high- end second hand store in the Peninsula village. If you need to buy something new, try buying from sustainable stores. Fast fashion is far worse than you would imagine for factory workers and the environment, so this Christmas give the gift of a livable future.
Buy zero waste gifts. Try buying produce bags, shampoo and conditioner bars, reusable mugs, reusable water bottles, stainless steal razors, bamboo tooth brushes, reusable make up rounds or any other products that promote waste-less consumption and are products that can be used for a long time. When you buy your friends and family gifts like this it begins there path to reduce waste. Sometimes people just need a little push! Check out the zero waste store online. They have lots of cheap Christmas deals for lovely, waste- free items.
This year try buying only truly meaningful and usable gifts . Give experiences not things! Step away from consumeristic mentalities urging you to by clothing, toys, technology, jewelry or other meaningless possessions. Presents are always more important when they are experiences, so try buying or giving those to your family and friends this Christmas.
But, what type of tree should these sustainably wrapped, zero-waste presents be under? A typical 6’5 plastic fake tree produces 40 Kg of CO2 in its petroleum-based material combined with its production, packaging and transportation. But is a real tree any better? The climate crisis makes every tree valuable in reducing carbon in the air, due to carbon sequestration (carbon sinks). For this reason, my family purchased a sapling pine tree in a pot, that we will reuse for many years as it grows in our backyard during the off season and best of all, it will have a negative carbon footprint. If you do decide to cut down a tree, purchase and disposal choices are very significant. Make sure to buy from a local tree farm, as supermarket trees are typically wrapped in plastic netting and transported far distances. In terms of disposal, if a natural tree is sent to landfill, it will produce 16 Kg of CO2, and if you make the calculations, over just three years, the CO2 emissions will exceed that of a fake tree. By contrast, if you take your real tree to the annual White Rock Fire Fighters Tree Chip, typically on the first weekend of January at Centennial Park, your tree will have a “negligible or negative carbon footprint” Carbon Trust proclaims. A local real tree, potted or chipped is conclusively the most sustainable option.
This Christmas we will be starting a zero-waste challenge that I encourage you all to try. This Christmas try and make it a less wasteful holiday, more focussed on love and family than materials. Send us and post on ways that you are making your Christmas more environmentally friendly and we will share the fabulous ideas people have!!!!!! Good luck!!!!! This Christmas, our family will be trying to limit our waste as much as possible. To start we have decided to do no presents. Often presents are very unneeded things and our family wants to stay away from consumerism as much as we can. We also don’t want to give in to the materialistic mentalities of Christmas. We also won’t be doing stocking stuffers as most candy is wrapped in plastic or wasteful materials. If you are doing this, try and use foil wrapped candies that can be recycled instead of thrown away. The fundamental reason for Christmas is to spend time cherishing those you love. We don’t need to give presents to do so. For our distant family and friends, we will be only giving zero-waste gifts like mesh produce bags, shampoo and conditioner bars and other zero waste goods we have shared on this account. Check out the zero-waste store to find other Christmas gifts options. I encourage each of you to try and adapt this principle, buying only truly valuable and needed gifts or those adhering to a reduced-waste lifestyle. If you are giving presents, try and use old newspaper to wrap them or sew or buy cloth present bags. We have some cloth present bags that we have used for our entire childhoods to wrap all presents. This makes Christmas day more waste-less. Throughout the month we will continue to post on ways in which you can make your Christmas more environmentally friendly. Please try and adapt some of these principles!!!!!!!! We challenge you!!!!!
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