Christmas cheer is in the air, and we can almost smell the glorious seafood and pavlova! While it is the season of giving, Christmas can be an extremely taxing time for the environment.

If you want to give the gift of a lower carbon footprint, but don’t want to give up the Christmas luxuries you enjoy, SCRgroup have shared with Canberra Daily their five top tips for an eco-friendly Christmas that won’t spoil the celebrations.   

Christmas tree

Artificial Christmas trees are most definitely the cheaper option, but as they’re made from unrecyclable materials, they’re potentially hazardous to the environment and your health. So, rather than throw away your unwanted tree, choose to donate, exchange, sell online, or get creative and use it to make some festive decorations for your home! On the flip side, if you need a new tree, why not utilise your imagination and use some non-traditional plants or decorations to make a stylish piece of art?

Recycled wrapping paper

Over Christmastime in Australia, more than seven million kilograms of wrapping paper is thrown away – enough to cover Bondi Beach 68 times! Equating to 83 square kilometres of rubbish, it’s clearly problematic for the environment, and that’s excluding all the packaging and plastic bags that retail stores use! An eco-solution to this significant waste problem is to wrap your gifts in old newspaper, magazines, recycled wrapping paper or your children’s old artwork for a personal touch. Whenever possible, remember to reuse or recycle any wrapping paper you receive too.

Christmas cards

Did you know that most Christmas cards and gift tags can take up to 30 years to decompose? Although in this modern era, the number of Christmas cards delivered in the post is on the decline thanks to social media and mobile phones, there’s still a significant amount of gift tags that end up in landfill each year. Instead of buying foiled cards in plastic packaging, you could buy recycled cards or get crafty and make eco-friendly cards.

Deck the halls

Instead of buying brand new Christmas home decorations each year, see if you can revamp those you already own or create a rustic aesthetic with some natural and truly eco-friendly ornaments. Try painting your old decorations or collecting things like holly branches and pinecones to transform your home into a traditional Christmas wonderland.

The gift that keeps on giving

Face it, we’ve all received a gift from a family member that we pretended to love but knew it will never leave the back of our closet. Instead of letting things collect dust in the back of the wardrobe, or eventually making their way into landfill, put your unwanted presents to good use this year. You could reuse, recycle or upcycle the gift, or donate it at one of SCRgroups drop-off hubs for unwanted clothing, handbags, accessories, toys and shoes. Find one of the Canberra locations here.

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