Huge amounts of packaging and paper go to into the wrapping and delivering of all our Christmas presents. Online deliveries in particular are usually packaged in cardboard boxes and often triple the size of the gift inside.
Then there are Christmas cards; unwanted leaflets advertising ‘must have’ Christmas gifts; paper chains made at school; more parcels arriving from more online shopping; and of course wrapping paper.
With extra guests visiting, you’re likely to have more mince pie boxes, kitchen roll tubes, chocolate boxes, biscuit selection boxes as well as all your foil-wrapped chocolate Santas, plastic Yorkshire pudding inserts, custard tubs and meat trays.
The good news? You can recycle all of it – as long as it’s clean, dry and loose, and the paper mustn’t be shiny.
The better news? If you do, you are not only diverting waste from landfill, but saving £82 per tonne on landfill tax. A 2m roll of wrapping paper may only weigh 130g, but if each home threw out the equivalent of just one roll post-Christmas, it would cost almost £4,000 in landfill tax. Take a look around your home and please recycle what you can this Christmas.
Top tip:
Plain brown parcel paper can easily be re-used to wrap Christmas presents.
It’s hard wearing - so won’t get damaged and accidentally give gift recipients a premature glimpse - and, with some well-chosen
string and coloured card, looks great!
