Here are some shocking Christmas facts:
In 2017 it was estimated that Brits would throw out 108 million rolls of Christmas wrapping paper and this just increasing every year.
We use 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging for gifts with an astonishing amount ending up in our oceans.
Our over excessive eating habits during Christmas cause the same carbon footprint as a single car travelling 6,000 times around the globe, according to a University of Manchester study. As a nation, we consume 80% more food over the Christmas season than during the rest of the year, spending on average over £174 per household on food for just one day. Our Christmas traditions include 10 million turkeys, 370 million mince pies and 205 million glasses of champagne consumed by UK households.
We send enough Christmas cards that if we placed them alongside each other, they’d cover the world’s circumference 500 times! Per 1kg of wrapping paper, 3.5kg of CO2 is emitted for its production. Times that by the 227,000 tonnes we use yearly, and that’s outrageously contributing to our ever-growing carbon emissions!
Our love of lights at Christmas aren’t just damaging for electricity use, it can cause confusion for the wildlife who struggle with the sudden illuminations.
8 million Christmas trees are cut down every year so that people can use them for decoration!
the average Brit spends over £40 on wasted food. Collectively, we bin 230,000 tonnes of unneeded Christmas treats. The equivalent to 74 million mince pies or 2 million turkeys.
By March 41% of toys will have broken or our children will be bored of them, most of which will go straight to the tip.
Here are some tips on how to make and wrap presents while keeping the environment in mind:
Reusable makeup removing pads
What you need:
- Flannel or a old towel
- Nice fabric (Needs to be washable at 40 degrees or more)
- Scissors
- An overlocker or sewing machine
Cut two pieces of material one from the flannel or a old towel and one from the nice material.
Place the material with the nice side facing outwards and go around the edges with a overlocker or on a sewing machine using a zig-zag stitch.
Enjoy
Christmas decorations or gifts made from plaster:
You will need:
Silicone moulds
Water
Pegs (Optional)
Ribbon (Optional)
Magnets (Optional)
These can be used for:
Photo holders (Use pegs)
Paper weights
Christmas tree decorations (Add a ribbon through the hole)
Fridge magnets
Coasters (Make large ones)
Comment down below if you have any other ideas
Earrings:
You will need:
Superglue
Tweezers
Paper towel
1. Turn your gem with the right (Nice gemmy) side facing your work surface.
2. Hold the earring studs with your tweezers ( As you might find that they are too small to hold with your hands) apply a small dot of superglue onto the stud
3. Push the gem onto the stud and wipe of any remaining glue with a paper towel
4. Wait for the glue to dry
(Make sure you sterilise them before wearing!)
If you don't want to make gifts, here are just some of the many places where you can buy eco-friendly presents:
Wrapping your gifts
We recommend eco friendly paper that is made using recycled materials. This has recently become really popular and yet it has no shiny patterns. It can be easily customised with simple stamping or potato printing (This we recommend less as it creates food waste).
You can buy this wrapping paper from:
If you would like to read about eco-friendly Christmas tree buying then check out this article but we will probably post about eco-friendly Christmas trees and decorations soon!
Hopefully you liked this post and please comment down below on what other posts you would like to see and also share any craft ideas with us please!
We hope that you have a great Christmas and if you don't celebrate it, a great holiday!
-The Eco Sisters xx