By Elisabeth Perham

Christmas should be a time for celebration, a time for sharing, being with family, celebrating all that is good. While this may be the case, the unfortunate truth, like the Climate Change movie says the inconvenient truth, is that the annual Christmas craze is one which is seriously damaging the health of the Earth.

Funny how Christmas now starts in October. The mall decorations go up, ads encourage you to start your shopping and catalogues arrive in the mail. Nearly three months away and already we can’t escape it. Not that I’m a scrooge, far from it! In fact, I love the holiday season. Yet I find myself becoming more and more concerned about the festival of consumerism that modern-day Christmas is.

And not just consumerism at Christmas, but throughout the whole year. Landfills swell, temperatures rise, neighbourhoods flood and hurricanes devastate cities. You already know all this, we all do, but do you care enough to do anything about it? In the most recent statistics available (ie. 1997: so archaic that it’s shameful) New Zealanders disposed of 3.4 million tonnes of waste into landfills. That’s almost a tonne each! What’s worse is that this is so much more than we used to dispose of. In the Auckland region, this was an increase of 73% per person of rubbish from 1983. Imagine what the figure is now – and what it will be like in ten years’ time.

It may seem rather macabre to be bringing this up when this season should be festive, but it is in fact the perfect time. At Christmas our already ludicrous consumption goes up a further 25%, and as about 80% of goods made for consumption are thrown away within six months of production, this means a whole lot more waste.

Fact: in the UK alone, at least 1 billion Christmas cards will find their way to the bin by the end of this holiday season. Although similar figures are not available here in New Zealand, if we sent cards at the same voracious rate as our British counterparts (which is unfortunately quite likely), this would mean we send a whopping 66.5 million a year. With one tree required for the production of 3000 cards, we could unwittingly be sending 22000 trees through our postal system.

But the news isn’t all bad. If we all make just a little bit of effort, the bad we are doing CAN be reversed. Ladies and gentlemen, the Earth can be saved! For every tonne of paper we manage to recycle, 13 trees, 31780 litres of water and 2.5 barrels of oil are conserved. For every one tonne of aluminium recycled: 13,300 kWh of electricity is saved, 95% less air pollution is produced and 4 tonnes of chemical product are conserved.

So this Christmas, do give thanks: give thanks for the Earth being the one planet in the entire universe that can sustain your life. Give thanks for the generations that will follow you. Make it a Merry Pollution-Free Christmas for all your grandchildren and great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

References:

Zero Waste
Waste Online
http://ims.npt.gov.uk/imsapps/waste/waste_christmas.aspx

TAKE ACTION
It’s easy to make Christmas less wasteful, and just a little effort from all of us will make a big difference. You’ll be helping save the Earth and, who knows, you could even save some money! It’s a simple matter thinking about the three R’s:

Top ways to Reduce Christmas waste…

• Think carefully about the gifts you buy.
• Buy Fair Trade if possible and look for environmentally-responsible producers.
• If you’re not sure what to buy, give money or vouchers. That way the gift is less likely to be thrown out.
• Be imaginative with presents. Buy a couple of chickens for a family living in poverty on your mate’s behalf (Oxfam:Unwrapped )
• Make vouchers with promises to cook tea one night or do the vacuuming for a month. A spot of baking never goes amiss either, and it can be really fun!!!



• Christmas Trees:
• Use an artificial tree, much more environmentally friendly than a real one.
• Better still, decorate a living tree in a pot and let it live! Both these options can be reused every year without the need to chop down yet another tree…
• Christmas Cards
• Send e-greetings instead of cards. Try www.christmas-egreetings.com for a range of awesome cards (cheaper too).
• Food
• Buy food in recyclable packaging… and recycle it!!! (Especially don’t buy things in Styrofoam packaging. It never decomposes… ever!!!)

 
 
Things you can Re-use…

• Wrapping
• Remove your Christmas wrap carefully and tuck it away to wrap next year’s presents.
• Use string, not tape. That way it’s easier for others to recycle it too.
• Make tags/cards
• If you’re into saving money and like to be creative, use the pictures off the front of received cards to handcraft your own highly personalised cards and gift tags.
• Re-Gifting - If you are given a gift you don’t like, don’t throw it out!!! Donate anything in good condition to a charity shop or pass it on to someone else. Or jump on Trade Me: one man’s trash is another man’s treasure after all. Or give it as a gift next year – just be careful you don’t return it to the same person!

 
 
And don’t forget to Recycle…

• Put all those bottles, cans, cards and packets in the recycling bin. Most cities now have street collection, but if this isn’t available, it’s only one trip to the recycling depot. It’s really not that difficult. To find out what the deal is in your area check out this link.

A version of this article was originally published in JET magazine.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 at 18 December 2007 and is filed under Articles, Environment, Culture.

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