With Climate Action now top of the agenda many people are looking for ways to reduce their impact on the environment this Christmas.
Two simple ways to achieve that goal is to produce less food waste and recycle more after Christmas, that is the message from Wicklow County Council for the festive season.
Ten per cent of carbon emissions globally can be linked to food waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Stop Food Waste programme. Avoiding food waste is one action on climate all of us can take.
It’s better for our planet and can save us money too. Christmas is the time of year when food waste reaches its annual peak with some very expensive items making their way to the brown bin.
Shops are full of tempting foods at this time of the year and with poor planning we can easily end up purchasing too much. We also tend to overstock on ordinary food items for Christmas even though shops reopen quickly.
Leftovers after the big meal on Christmas day, or parties, don’t have to be put in the bin. Think about ways to reuse them with turkey easily frozen and used in recipes after the big day.
There will lots of packaging waste in households after Christmas so make sure to recycle it. A visit to the local recycling centre will allow people to recycle a greater range of material and bigger quantities.
The Council’s advice is to gather all the recycling, keep it clean, dry and loose to maximise the quality. Older electrical items which are replaced by new ones at Christmas can be recycled by either bringing it to the shop where you purchased it or to the local recycling centre.
It’s free to recycle electrical items and helps save and reuse the scarce metals that are used in modern electronics. A lot of batteries are used at Christmas and these can also be recycled.
And finally, when it comes to taking down the Christmas tree remember Wicklow County Council provides a free recycling service for shredding real trees at different locations around the county.
Have a happy Christmas but let us all minimise its impact on climate by producing less waste and maximise recycling.
