How to reduce your waste at Christmas
Over the festive period we throw out the equivalent of 2 million turkeys, 5 million Christmas puddings and 74 million mince pies. With the average Christmas food bill running at £169 per household that's a lot of wasted food needlessly bought and thrown into Warwickshire landfills and energy from waste plants.
Here are some handy tips to reduce your waste before, during and after Christmas.
Before Christmas
To avoid buying too much food use our tips below for a waste free Christmas:
- Make a simple list
A simple shopping list is a sure-fire way to avoid being tempted into buying things you don't need. So before heading out to the shops or even if you're doing it online write one and stick to it. Follow these great shopping list tips.
- It's all in the planning
Simple, quick planning beforehand will ensure you have just the right amount of food for the festive period.
- Perfect portions
Oh dear not sure how many sprouts to cook? Fear not as our friends at Love Food Hate Waste have a useful information for letting you know how much food to buy.
- The right sized turkey
Last Christmas we consumed 10 million turkeys of which 2 million ended up in the bin. Choosing the right size can be tricky particularly as you may not be used to catering for larger groups so use the below guide to get the perfect size:
- 2-2.5kg serves 4-6
- 3kg serves 6-7
- 5kg serves 7-8
- 4-4.5kg serves 8-10
- 5-5.5kg serves 10-12
- 6-6.5kg serves 12-15
Christmas Day
Remember most wrapping paper, Christmas cards, wine bottles, glass jars and lids, plastic bottles, tubs, pots and trays, foil, tins and cans can all be recycled in your recycling boxes. If you live in either Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough, Rugby Borough or Stratford District, drinks cartons can be put into your kerbside recycling container.
Lovely leftovers
If you have any leftovers, don't bin them, use to make another meal! The Love Food Hate Waste website and app has loads of tasty recipes for your leftovers. Why not try this delicious Turkey and Chickpea Coconut Curry?
Your freezer is your festive friend
You'd be amazed at how many foods you can freeze. And since the freezer acts like a 'pause button' you can freeze food right up until the use by date. If you spot something in the fridge that's just about to go over its date extend its life by popping it in the freezer!
Try these typical Christmas food freezer tips
And don't forget to eat from the freezer in the run up to the big day, freeing up space for all those tasty leftovers!
Compost your food waste - feed your green waste bin
Food that you haven't manage to use up or freeze can be either be composted at home or recycled at the kerbside through the green bin. Find out about out discounted home compost bins.
After Christmas
Now Christmas is done and dusted for another year it's time to recycle our trees, cards, paper and even gifts.
Christmas trees
Small trees can be cut up into small pieces and recycled with your green waste. Find out the local arrangements here: https://www.rugby.gov.uk/recycleright
Alternatively, please take to your nearest household waste recycling centre. Some Garden Centres and Nurseries may also be offering Christmas Tree recycling points.
Christmas Cards
Most cards are paper based but often have embellishments like ribbons or glitter which can make them more difficult to recycle. Check with your local council to see if they can be put in your recycling container or whether they need to be taken to the recycling centre. In January you will often find high street stores and supermarkets who have special collection points for cards. Find out your arrangements by visiting your district/borough website.
Christmas Wrapping Paper
The materials that go into making some wrapping paper result in it not always being accepted for recycling:
Wrapping paper is often dyed, laminated and/or contains non-paper additives such as gold and silver coloured shapes, glitter, plastics etc which cannot be recycled
Some wrapping paper is very thin and contains few good quality fibres for recycling
A lot of wrapping paper has sticky tape attached to it which makes it very difficult to recycle
Reuse your wrapping paper where possible for next year. Some councils will accept wrapping paper with your household recycling collection scheme, but others will not - so please check with them first.
Small electrical items (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment)
After Christmas we often throw out old electronic devices, which have been superseded by new ones. Don't bin them but bring them to your either your nearest HWRC or WEEE Bring Bank. Visit https://www.recyclenow.com/dont-bin-it-bring-it and enter your postcode to locate your nearest WEEE recycling point.
Reuse your unwanted Christmas presents
Did you receive something which don't want? Rather than leave it to clutter up your house take unwanted Christmas presents to https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/charityshops, https://www.ageuk.org.uk/warwickshire/shops/reuse-shops/