LARAC – Happy Christmas!

Have yourself a very Merry Christmas!

We’d like to think that it’s been a year of progress in waste and resource management. Despite delays and much back and forth on policies, if the demand for green skills is anything to go by, there’s certainly some movement towards improving waste management. The problem is while most members of the public, and even business leaders will acknowledge that more needs to be done to protect the environment, not everyone is connecting the dots. The festive season is a prime example of this.

As early as October retailers started decorating with lights and Christmas decorations. Catalogues were printed and production ramped up in anticipation of festive season spending. There’s been Black Friday, Cyber Monday and now retailers are in full swing promoting the “Season of giving” to push consumers to buy more. As if our current consumerism wasn’t bad enough, the festive season puts it on steroids. 

Companies say that it’s necessary to build the economy and that getting people to spend is a driver of growth. The problem is that while they count the production and spending as a positive, too few are counting the cost of the excess waste that occurs.

Local Authorities are all too familiar with the volumes of waste. While households around the UK are celebrating and indulging in Christmas dinner, LA’s are having to deal with the overflowing bins. Resources are stretched thin with staff taking time off, so it doesn’t help that it’s the time of year when waste levels peak. Statistics show that as much as 30% more waste is generated over the festive season than the rest of the year.

It's not just the presents and wrapping paper, or even discarded Christmas lights and crackers that make up the bulk of it. Food waste exceeds 200 000 tonnes! While some councils have successfully trialled composting caddies, these initiatives don’t cover all areas, so the dent they’re likely to make in total food waste over the festive season is likely to be minimal.

For most consumers it’s all too easy to excuse the excess, laugh it off to traditions and a once-a-year chance at some spoils. But somebody needs to connect the dots between heightened consumerism and excess waste. How can we play a more active role in that?

Are there creative ways to engage with communities and ask for a collective effort to generate less waste? Perhaps by highlighting what habits generate the most waste? Less extravagance with Christmas dinner leads to less food waste. Using recyclable rather than plastic wrapping paper. Carefully unwrapping gifts saves and recycles Christmas wrapping paper for next year. Encouraging collective responsibility is possibly the first step in curbing the idea that waste is someone else’s problem.