{"id":8278,"date":"2021-11-19T15:37:49","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T15:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/?p=8278"},"modified":"2021-11-19T15:40:04","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T15:40:04","slug":"have-a-merry-sustainable-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/2021\/11\/19\/have-a-merry-sustainable-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Have a Merry, Sustainable Christmas!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bishops of England and Wales, following the Pope\u2019s lead, are encouraging us to change our lifestyles so as to help reverse climate change. Here are some tips for Christmas. Remember the 3 R\u2019s \u2013 refuse, re-use, recycle. For instance, you can reduce plastic use in toiletries by buying bars of soap and bars of shampoo, instead of bottles of handwash and shampoo. You will find a wide range of green toiletries (plastic free\/ethically sourced\/organic\/vegan) on offer online, and some high street shops sell shampoo bars, for instance Lush and Superdrug.<\/span><\/p>\n

PRESENTS<\/strong> Don\u2019t buy unnecessary presents. Each year the UK spends about \u00a3700 million on unwanted presents. Find out what people need before you buy. Offer home-baked treats. Arrange a spending limit with family and friends. Check that the items you buy are green and ethical \u2013workers properly paid, not tested on animals, sustainably sourced, local if possible. Lists of ethical companies can be found by looking online. Best of all, make reciprocal arrangements with family and friends to not buy each other presents. They may be relieved!<\/span><\/p>\n

WRAPPING PAPER<\/strong> Half of the paper America consumes each year is used to wrap and decorate consumer products! In Britain every Xmas we throw away 226,800 miles of wrapping paper. There is no need to throw it away. It can be re-used many times. And you can buy wrapping paper made from hemp, or from recycled paper. How about using attractive and re-usable cloth material instead of paper? Use ribbon instead of tape for sealing, so that the paper can be more easily re-used or re-cycled. The ribbon can be re-used as well, as can the bows.<\/span><\/p>\n

CARDS<\/strong> Do you need to buy cards for people you see regularly? If you decide not to, explain that you are trying to reduce consumerism. Home-made cards are a great idea \u2013 people like the thought and effort that goes into them. You can use up leftover resources \u2013 cards, calendars, things around the house etc\u2026 A much better idea is to send a Happy Xmas email. If you receive cards, recycle don\u2019t bin them. It\u2019s estimated that each year we bin 1 billion cards instead of recycling them.<\/span><\/p>\n

XMAS TREES<\/strong> Millions of Xmas trees both real and artificial are discarded every year in the UK. To cut down on plastic dependence and to offset carbon emissions, buy a living tree, and keep it in the pot in the house or garden when not being used. They can be used year after year. Norfolk pines are suitable, as they don\u2019t grow large. Many Local Councils will collect and compost your tree when you\u2019ve finished with it. Or you can take it to the local recycling centre, or compost it yourself in your garden.\u00a0 Decorations can be home-made or home baked. Use LED lights, as they use up to 95% less energy than traditional bulbs.<\/span><\/p>\n

MEALS<\/strong> You\u2019ve probably seen headlines like \u201cTackling the world\u2019s most urgent problem: meat\u201d (United Nations Environment Programme). Growing animals for food involves destruction and pollution of the land, forests, waters and atmosphere, and takes resources from the poorest people. Include some vegan meals over the Xmas period. Vegan meal recipes can be found online \u2013 at Veganuary.com<\/a> for instance – and there are plenty of vegan ready meals in the shops.<\/span><\/p>\n

FOR MORE IDEAS<\/strong> look online. Type in something like \u201ctips for living sustainably over Xmas\u201d. \u00a0Also, whatever you’re looking to buy online, add the words “eco-friendly”.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s use Christmas time to move closer to God by thinking about how we can care for His creation. Have a healthy, holy, wholesome green Christmas!<\/span><\/p>\n

Christmas packaging facts: the definitive list<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bishops of England and Wales, following the Pope\u2019s lead, are encouraging us to change our lifestyles so as to help reverse climate change. Here are some tips for Christmas. Remember the 3 R\u2019s \u2013 refuse, re-use, recycle. For instance, you can reduce plastic use in toiletries by buying bars of soap and bars of shampoo, instead of bottles of handwash and shampoo. You will find a wide range of green toiletries (plastic free\/ethically sourced\/organic\/vegan) on offer online, and some high street shops sell shampoo bars, for instance Lush and Superdrug. PRESENTS Don\u2019t buy unnecessary presents. Each year the UK spends about \u00a3700 million on unwanted presents. Find out what people need before you buy. Offer home-baked treats. Arrange a spending limit with family and friends. Check that the items you buy are green and ethical \u2013workers properly paid, not tested on animals, sustainably sourced, local if possible. Lists of ethical companies can be found by looking online. Best of all, make reciprocal arrangements with family and friends to not buy each other presents. They may be relieved! WRAPPING PAPER Half of the paper America consumes each year is used to wrap and decorate consumer products! In Britain every Xmas we throw away 226,800 miles of wrapping paper. There is no need to throw it away. It can be re-used many times. And you can buy wrapping paper made from hemp, or from recycled paper. How about using attractive and re-usable cloth material instead of paper? Use ribbon instead of tape for sealing, so that the paper can be more easily re-used or re-cycled. The ribbon can be re-used as well, as can the bows. CARDS Do you need to buy cards for people you see regularly? If you decide not to, explain that you are trying to reduce consumerism. Home-made cards are a great idea \u2013 people like the thought and effort that goes into them. You can use up leftover resources \u2013 cards, calendars, things around the house etc\u2026 A much better idea is to send a Happy Xmas email. If you receive cards, recycle don\u2019t bin them. It\u2019s estimated that each year we bin 1 billion cards instead of recycling them. XMAS TREES Millions of Xmas trees both real and artificial are discarded every year in the UK. To cut down on plastic dependence and to offset carbon emissions, buy a living tree, and keep it in the pot in the house or garden when not being used. They can be used year after year. Norfolk pines are suitable, as they don\u2019t grow large. Many Local Councils will collect and compost your tree when you\u2019ve finished with it. Or you can take it to the local recycling centre, or compost it yourself in your garden.\u00a0 Decorations can be home-made or home baked. Use LED lights, as they use up to 95% less energy than traditional bulbs. MEALS You\u2019ve probably seen headlines like \u201cTackling the world\u2019s most urgent problem: meat\u201d (United Nations Environment Programme). Growing animals for food involves destruction and pollution of the land, forests, waters and atmosphere, and takes resources from the poorest people. Include some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8278"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8281,"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8278\/revisions\/8281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}