Christmas can have a startling impact on the environment. The figures from the UK show –
- 300,000 tonnes of card packaging is used at Christmas; enough to cover London’s Big Ben almost 260,000 times
- 1 billion cards end up in the bin, when they could be recycled
- 6 million Christmas trees are discarded every year
- 250 tonnes of Christmas trees are thrown away after Christmas, when they could be used for compost
- Some 2 million turkeys, 74 million mince pies and 17.2 million Brussel sprouts are thrown away every Christmas
- 13,350 tonnes of glass are thrown out after Christmas.
According to a study from Repak, Ireland is expected to generate 86,000 tonnes of packaging waste this Christmas, an increase of 3,000 tonnes from the previous year.
Click here to see what can you do to reduce your waste and go into the New Year guilt-free.
Source – House Beautiful