Unfortunately, just how much garbage at Christmas overspending and overindulgence really produces is not recorded in numbers. At Christmas, the amount of waste in Germany increases by 20 to 30 percent. Stephan Bitterlin, Managing Director of the Swiss Packaging Institute, doesn’t have exact figures, but Blick estimates: “It will look the same in Switzerland as it did in Germany.” New decorations, new wrapping paper, a Christmas tree, and a sumptuous feast every year – on the planet, it’s simply impossible to miss.
So you definitely don’t have to do it without a festival. With a few simple tricks, you can save a lot of waste with very little effort. A practical side-effect: effective waste minimization is also easy on the wallet!
1. No Compulsory Gift
Sustainable donation starts with shopping. Unnecessary, often cheap, “forced gifts” go to waste sooner or later. Things that are really useful, beautiful and of good quality will give you pleasure for a long time. Coupons for shared experiences are even better than material gifts: a nice dinner, a visit to thermal baths or a movie theater doesn’t waste packaging and is good for the relationship.
2. Rent a Christmas tree
About one and a half million Christmas trees are sold in Switzerland each year. By early January at the latest, they will all be disposed of again – mostly composted or fermented. As Biomasse Suisse told Blick, it’s the most environmentally friendly way to use trees.
There is also the option of renting a Christmas tree in pots instead of a cut tree. After the festival, they are brought back to the vendor who re-issued them. That way, trees can be reused every year. But be careful: the trees should not be left in the warm room for too long and should be well watered.
Why not decorate a tree in the garden or a plant on the balcony for the Christmas tree?
3. Wrap gifts with recycled paper
A lot of waste is created when packaging gifts. But that doesn’t mean you should do without exciting packaging and above all unpacking. It is best to leave the paper completely out and wrap the gift in fabric. A nice tea towel, a scarf, a bag or even a t-shirt serve as packaging and gifts at the same time. Or print it colorful and use old linens for great gifts.
If you do not want to do without paper, it is better to use recycled wrapping paper. Colored, glossy wrapping paper is often plasticized and should be thrown into a regular garbage bag instead of paper collection.
Brown wrapping paper decorated with colorful fabric bows, natural materials such as blackberries, twigs, cones or cinnamon sticks is also eye-catching.
4. Do without plastic decoration
While it may be tempting to snag new, trendy Christmas decorations every year—cheap plastic ornaments are far from eco-friendly. Existing Christmas decorations can be wonderfully spiced up with dried citrus fruits, colorful bows, straw stars, and a few unusual pieces from the flea market or thrift store.
5. Reuse leftovers after the feast
It’s the same at Christmas as at any other time of the year: regional, seasonal, organic and unpackaged as much as possible is the most sustainable. You don’t need any wild Alaskan salmon or exotic fruit, let alone greenhouse-grown strawberries, for a successful celebratory meal.
It is equally important to ask yourself how much food you really need. Two days – not two weeks! – shops are closed. Monster shopping on December 23 is stressful and tends to result in overbought. In the end, half of it goes to waste. Karin Spori of foodwaste.ch calls this the “good host syndrome”. “You want to appear as a good host at daily banquets, and you prefer to cook a lot to avoid looking stingy.” With a good menu planning and skillful use of leftover meals after the holiday, many food wastes can be prevented. Guests will definitely be happy if they can take home some of the good food with them.