Just a few thoughts on this festive day on sobering waste statistics from the UK:
* More than a billion Christmas cards – 17 for every man, woman and child – will be delivered this year. That’s enough to stretch around the world five times.
* 52 square miles of wrapping paper – enough to gift-wrap [the Isle of] Jersey – will be ripped off by Boxing Day.
* 125,000 tons of plastic packaging – equal to a million [UK Labour Minister] John Prescotts – will end up in the bin.
* Six million trees have been bought but only 1.2 million will be recycled. The rest will be left to rot or be thrown away.
* Shops sell 16 million turkeys and 830 million sprouts. Up to 40 per cent of festive food is wasted.
* Turkey foil wrap will create 3,000 tons of waste.
* Within three months, 41 per cent of the toys children receive will be broken. Most will go to the tip.
* Many will get the latest mobile phone but only 10 to 15 per cent are recycled.
What to do? Besides being judicious about the amount of food you cook and the sturdiness of the toys you purchase,
Take your tree to be ground down. Many local governments now accept trees for grinding into mulch. If your’s doesn’t then demand that it does.
Save and reuse your Christmas wrap or wrap your presents in cloth, an old Japanese tradition.
Other ideas?
Who actually BUYS REAL Christmas trees? Are you out of your mind? Would you like to buy a REAL possum to sit in the tree too? Or maybe a REAL bat as well, so the possum isn’t lonely? Sheesh. There is such thing as plastic trees you know, mine has been in use in my family for over 10 years. BUY that sometime.