“Refuse a rubbish Christmas and a trashy New Year”
On Saturday 3 December, Hannah Blumhardt and Liam Prince of The Rubbish Trip presented a talk on how to reduce waste during the Christmas season at Ngaio Union Church. The presentation got underway after a lovely morning tea of homemade (packaging free!) goodies. Topics discussed included gift giving and gift wrapping, Christmas dinner and table settings, decorations and travel.
Here are some of the ideas that were discussed to help us have a low waste Christmas season!
Gift giving - Low waste gift ideas:
Agree to no presents (best to discuss in advance to agree on expectations!)
Charity donations (e.g. The Good Registry, Tearfund's Gift for Life, Christian World Service Gifted, A Rocha’s Gifts with a Difference)
Homemade gifts: home baking, jams, chai tea, preserves, crafted or built gifts, homemade cosmetics.
Sharing your gifts and talents: e.g. share poetry you have written; offer to repair an item.
Op shops: Lots of second hand treasures!
Experience gifts: A visit to a concert, eco sanctuary, cooking class etc,
Vouchers.
Zero waste starter pack.
Gift wrapping: Gift wrapping paper is resource intensive to make, single use and sometimes includes plastics (think sparkly glittery types) that can’t be recycled. Some alternatives could be:
Scarfs, pillow cases, cloth bags that could be reused each year (create new Christmas traditions this way!). Op shops often have a wonderful array of fabrics. Try Furoshika (Japanese fabric wrapping) as a creative way of presenting your gifts.
Newspaper decorated with leaves and flowers that can all be composted.
Christmas dinner:
Avoid panic buying: Plan your menu and when you need to make purchases.
Commit to eating all the leftovers!
Make treats & meals at home.
Buy ingredients with no/minimal packaging (see regional zero waste shopping guides here).
Compost all food scraps.
Setting the Christmas table:
Use your own cutlery and crockery rather than using disposables.
Use cloth napkins.
Decorate the table with natural items and/or with treasured Christmas decorations that you can re-use year after year.
Christmas crackers: Make your own. If you must buy them, more sustainable ones are available this year from Hopper (with proceeds going to Forest & Bird).
Christmas decorations:
Reuse what you already have.
Try making your own.
Christmas trees: Use a potted tree / plant that you already have; create one out of driftwood, books or cardboard. The options are only limited by your creativity!
Hannah and Liam from The Rubbish Trip presenting
Travel/summer holidays: On average New Zealanders generate 30% more rubbish during the summer period than at other times of the year.
Plan ahead and be prepared!
Make a day bag: Reusable utensils, lunch box, drink bottle and coffee cup to take with you.
Food: Pre-prepare homemade snacks. Some good snacks to try making are bliss balls, muesli bars, crackers and popcorn. You also can’t go past fresh fruit and veggie snacks.
Composting on the road: Take a container with you to put food scraps in to take home with you if you’re on a short trip or have a look at Share Waste NZ where you can be connected with hosts in the area you are travelling in who have composting.