Eco-Tips for the Christmas Leftovers - Part 1

At Go Ape we’re very conscious of being environmentally responsible; regularly litter picking our sites, selecting our materials responsibly, and even choosing carefully what we use to clean the toilet. That’s got us thinking, how can we apply the same principle to all of the Christmas ‘stuff’ that we’ve got laying around? We’ve come up with some helpful ideas to tackle all of the Christmas leftovers and do our best for the environment, plus a few of ideas to involve the kids! Part One is all about food, wrapping paper and cards, part two features eco-tips for Christmas trees and New Year’s sales.

Around 10 million Turkeys are eaten at Christmas each year in the UK, and according to the Bank of England each household spends an average of an extra 20% on food in December compared to other months. Think about what’s sitting uneaten in your fridge and then multiply it for the country. that’s a lot of waste!

First up, raw fruit and veg! We’ve all been a little overzealous when shopping for sprouts, or maybe not, but any uncooked veggies that you just can’t bring yourself to eat are suitable for the compost. The same goes for the peelings too! Make sure you read up on the best ways to compost at home as the process can take some months or longer.  A little prep reading can go long way.  Here’s a starting point.

What about the cooked stuff? We suggest shooting over to the BBC Good Food, click the search function in the top right corner and search ‘Christmas Leftovers’. This throws up over 100 suggestions for recipes using Christmas leftovers.

In the UK we buy enough Christmas wrapping paper each year to go around the world 22 times! We also throw away 1.5 billion Christmas cards, hopefully into the recycling bin.

There are other options however; Christmas cards can be cut up to make gift tags for the following year. As mentioned above, make sure to recycle the parts that you’re not saving.

There are a couple of options for wrapping paper too; if it’s still in good condition then it can be used again for next year. Another idea is to cut the wrapping paper into strips ready to make paper chains the following Christmas.

Please remember that dyed, printed and glossy papers and card shouldn’t go into the compost.