December 2006
Dreaming Of A Waste Christmas
With the festive season upon us, you might think that the offices of Pro Enviro would be buzzing with the excitement of partridges, presents and parties. However, the thought of tonnes of extra rubbish, millions of chopped-down trees and megawatts of flashing lights regularly keeps the well-intentioned souls at our offices awake at night!
According to Defra, a billion Christmas Cards end up in UK bins every year, adding about 350,000 trees to the 8 million or so already felled for decorative purposes. In addition, it is estimated that 83 km2 of wrapping paper, 4,200 tonnes of aluminium foil, and over a billion bottles, cans and other containers go the same way.
Few people realise that for every tonne of waste produced in our homes five tonnes of waste have already been produced in manufacturing, as well as ten tonnes at the point where the raw materials were extracted.
It is no exaggeration to state that, in fact, every last aspect of our behaviour at Christmas has lasting negative environmental effects. But this needn’t be so; it is still more than possible to have a green Christmas without becoming a Scrooge, all it takes is a little awareness.
One little-recognised, yet nonetheless major, source of waste at Christmas relates to logistics. We rarely stop to think about the environmental consequences of extra travel over the Christmas period; and by this we don’t simply mean a trip to the in-laws’ for turkey on the big day. The emissions created by the cars which afford us extra trips to shopping centres, by the aeroplanes which allow us to escape to warmer climes with the children, and by the vehicles which deliver our cards and presents can all be reduced or offset. Why not try doing all of your shopping in one place, sending e-cards instead of conventional ones, or contributing money to projects in developing countries designed to offset your carbon emissions from any holidays abroad? Why not do some of your shopping online, from the comfort of your own home? If you must drive, why not make an effort to avoid congested times and places? You can save not only a lot of headaches, but the environment at the same time.
Other useful tips to reduce your environmental impact this Christmas include finding innovative ways to wrap presents that minimise the use of wrapping paper, investing in LED-type Christmas lights (they use 90% less energy), buying decorations which will be reused rather than thrown out, and refraining from using disposable cutlery.
You may also wish to think about the food miles clocked up in the preparation of your Christmas dinner; buying local is the general advice.
It is not, however, only individuals who will be unconsciously damaging the environment this Christmas. Our very own Dr Richard Whitaker has calculated that on Christmas day last year the metal forming sector alone used 160 megawatt-hours of electricity. He has also calculated that approximately 300 gigawatt-hours of electricity was wasted by industry as a whole over the week-long Christmas shutdown period. This would have produced nearly 130,000 tonnes of CO2, at the cost of a massive £27 million.
A little energy management can go a long way, not only to saving money but, perhaps more importantly, to saving our planet. This should be as much the prerogative of the individual as of the business.
To start saving money on your energy costs now contact Nersi Salehi on 01788 538 150.
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