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Sustainability

Practical tips to reduce waste at Christmas

28 de November, 2022

From food, to presents, to decorations… Christmas is a time when consumption tends to multiply. And that consumption comes at a cost, not only to our wallets, but also to the environment.

This time of year is typically marked by very high levels of waste. According to Quercus, the amount of waste produced at Christmas 2020 was 24% higher than the rest of the year.

As consumers, we should be aware of the environmental impact this festive season can have and adopt more environmentally friendly consumption habits and actions.

So here are some tips you can put into practice this Christmas!

1 – Gifts

  • Favor quality over quantity, opting for more durable gifts;
  • Buy gifts at antique fairs or second-hand stores, for example;
  • Offer digital gifts, such as eBooks, digital subscriptions to newspapers and magazines or streaming platforms;
  • Look for products from sustainable and ethical brands;
  • Replace physical gifts with experiences (such as theater or concert tickets, museum admissions, massages, etc);
  • Reuse wrapping paper, bags and bows from previous years;
  • Get creative and use newspaper or fabric scraps to wrap the gifts instead of the typical wrapping paper;
  • Avoid using labels to identify the recipients of gifts;
  • Try not to buy excessively packaged products.

2 – Decorations

  • Use the decorations from previous years;
  • Get the family involved and make your own decorations with logs, pine cones, moss or cinnamon sticks, for example;
  • Reduce energy consumption and avoid having the lights on for too long (only turn them on when you’re at home and off at night);
  • Look for more environmentally friendly light bulbs, such as LED bulbs for indoors and solar bulbs for outdoors.

3 – Food

  • Plan meals in advance and make a shopping list adapted to the number of people to prevent waste (especially of perishable products);
  • Only buy the food you really need;
  • Reduce your use of packaging by taking your own reusable bags shopping;
  • Store all food and ingredients correctly to prevent them from spoiling;
  • Encourage guests to take leftovers to eat the next day;
  • Take a look at the leftovers and see what can be frozen and what can be reused in new recipes.
  • If you get the chance, compost organic waste such as fruit and vegetable peelings, old bread, tea bags and so on.

And don’t forget: in the case of packaging and materials that can’t be kept for the following year – aluminum packaging, plastic or glass bottles, cardboard boxes, among others – separate them so that they can be recycled.

Do you adopt any of these habits at home during the Christmas season? Do you have any other ideas for avoiding waste at this time of year? Share them with us!

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