I’m Dreaming Of A Greener Christmas 34
I ’m dreaming
of a green(er) Christmas On the face of it, Christmas could be deemed a very unsustainable festival. Trees cut down and brought indoors, acres of glittery, foiled wrapping paper and tons of unwanted gifts going straight into landfill. Depressingly, 23 million unwanted Christmas gifts (worth between £200m-500m) generate many tens of thousands of tonnes of landfill every year. All this before we even get started on the wasted food and the food packaging we will throw away (we generally buy 30% more food and drink for the Christmas season). We throw out 4,500 tonnes of tin foil and 125,000 tonnes of plastic food packaging during the Christmas season.
So what can we do to try to make their Christmas shopping 2021 much greener and eco friendly? For most people, easy changes can make a considerable difference. Here’s just a few. Shop Local Instead of turning to Amazon, try doing your gift and Christmas shopping locally this year. Canterbury is so lucky to have a wonderful mixture of local, independent retailers as well as its national chains. If you’ve not spent a day wandering the cobbled backstreets of The Cathedral Quarter and The King’s Mile, you’re really missing a great festive shopping experience. Unusual inspirations for the home, toys, beautiful jewellery, shoes, Fairtrade gifts, clothing, scarves and accessories, ceramics – it’s all here. The Christmas windows are beautiful and a great backdrop to give you a Christmassy glow.
➜ Look for Greener Gifts
and Christmas buys
Lush - Great smelling Christmas bath bombs, soaps and sustainably made toiletries. Lush has even introduced a returnable plastic packaging service – giving you money off when you bring the plastic outer layers back for them to recycle. Many of their products are package free. Almost 6 million plastic bottles are saved globally from selling their shampoo bars alone. Unboxed - Local entrepreneur Lynda desMarais opened her St Peter’s St store with the aim of reducing the mountain of waste material from the weekly shop. She decided to open Unboxed, a plastic free, refillable and eco-friendly store. Come take a look - reuse your own jars and fill them up with nuts, seeds, grains or dairy free chocolate buttons for Christmas treats! There are always some lovely gift inspirations at Unboxed, such as loose leaf teas, or locally roasted coffee.
