I can’t help feeling that the guy whose birth Christmas is supposed to be about celebrating would be appalled if he saw the amount of waste that was being created in his name. What do you think?
But, Christmas being what it is, we wake up from our excesses in January with an increased waistline, and wasteline. So, in full damage limitation mode, here’s what to do with all that stuff you don’t need anymore now that Xmas is over.
Firstly, all those unwanted Xmas gifts. You know, the sort that that you get from extended family who insist on buying something for everyone, no matter how awful. The peach nightgown, cheap perfume, desk toys that went out of fashion in the 80s. Pile them all into a big bag and head off to a local charity shop. This is such a good system because you get rid of what you don’t want without it going in the bin, and the charity gets to raise some money to do good.
If you’re finding it hard to part with the unwanted gift because it’s worth a few bob, give Recycle a Gift a go, or eBay it if you prefer.
Then there are those cards. A great pile of them. The Woodland Trust is collecting used Christmas cards for recycling at WHSmith, Tesco, TK Maxx and Marks & Spencer during January. Recycling cards generates money that is used to plant trees. In fact, if everyone in the UK recycled just one card each through this scheme, it would be able to plant 15,000 trees.*
Wrapping paper can be reused for any number of different projects like CD covers, origami or papier mache.
Cardboard boxes can be played with before recycling.
Remember, reuse comes before recycle.
*source: edie
Photo credit: claytron