What simple steps can we all take to help make this Christmas greener?

Question

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Answer 1

how about ,when you send a violation notice e-mail ,filling in the reason for violation part,so us the users, know why we got a violation notice,and we can try to avoid it in future,so we don't keep asking

how about when ,rarely,you do fill the bit ....reason for violation...,to actually bother to read the question/answer as opposed to just putting anything you deem ''reasonable/debatable'' because you might be too busy

how about stopping people having multiple profiles in here under the same IP address and the same computer account user name

how about stopping people voting on their own questions,point gaming and top contributor badge gaming

how about charging all of us for a thumbs up or down a point, and making it impossible to thumb anything ,unless the user has not replied at all,eliminating the phantom downthumbers

How about running the utillity in the tittle ,alerting users about similar tittles,in the actual text for a question,so we all know where we stand ,before posting

what I am trying to say here is generally ,less computer usage will save a small amount of energy

Answer 2

Switch off your computer. Stop asking stupid questions. Save electricity and breathe more slowly... Happy Christmas.

Answer 3

recycle all food waste also bottles'cans and cardboard from the presents you can now recycle your old christmas cards and in some places you can recycle your rapping paper and don't for get the tree can also be recycled so get recycling and save our planet it's not that hard to do.

Answer 4

A huge number of people don't recycle at all. They just stuff everything into their wheely bin.

Rule 1: don't be one of them.

Recycle your Christmas Tree.

Most public dumps have skips dedicated to 'green waste' and welcome Christmas Trees. Apparently they can be shredded.

Separate the paper from the plastics on the Christmas presnet wrappings and send the paper and cardboard boxes for recycling, and the sellotape and plastic 'windows and bubbles' to their own bin.

Go for a walk rather than drive to the pub.

Use public transport when visiting the relatives between Christmas and New Year. (I know that's not easy at this late stage but it's worth calling the railway to see if there's a seat)

Take a few minutes to keep cooked food waste separate from general household waste so that there no risk of it contaminating recyclable materials. Put uncooked and unused food waste into your composter (read instructions on what is suitable for this).

Make it a game for the youngsters to separate the recyclable paper and cardboard with sweets as prizes (see that everyone wins something) and a special prize for the best flattened carboard box.

Finally. All bottles to the bottle bank please.

Answer 5

Stop chopping down real Christmas Tree's. Use artificial once. I do that for years.

Stop wasting energy and electricity.

Change light bulbs to energy efficient once.

Answer 6

Well first of all the question is too late as most people willhave bought thier lights toys or whatever .

I suggest firing the wannker that is in charge and get some with a dose of reality,and who has the respect of his staff.

Answer 7

Forget the Turkey and have fish instead

Answer 8

By buying things like soaps, chocolates, perfumes and things that people use. That way, nothing goes unwanted. Also, consider using painted branches as decorations instead of a tree. The branches can be hung one year, put in vases the next, and so on.

Answer 9

There is plenty of simple things you can do to make your christmas greener. I have written an article with 10 top tips. Link below

Answer 10

Easy. Don't buy more food than you can consume. By locally produced in season food. Don't wrap presents or if you MUST use anything you have at home. I use either paper saved from previous years or newspaper or plain brown wrapping paper. Don't illuminate your home like blackpool tower. All that does is say "look, I'm an ignorant show off who doesn't give a stuff about global warming and have more money than sense".

Try to source non mass produced gifts, or ask everyone for a list of things they want or need and buy as few or as many as you want or can afford. This prevents people wasting time and money on stuff people never wanted and won't ever use. Buy recycled gifts. My son and I would be horrified if we didn't get each other at least one gift from a charity shop..

Complain to shop keepers who have their heating on full blast and leave their shop doors wide open. (Holland and Barret, the heart foundation are 2 which have this 'open door' policy despite knowing how damaging it is to the environment) refuse to shop in them and write to head office to tell them why.

When your home is full of people, turn down the heating. Lots of bodies create their own warmth.

Don't leave the telly blaring in the background if nobody is watching it.

The greenest thing anyone can do though is explain to others why it matters and why you are doing something, like buying free range locally reared turkey, or wrapping the pressies in newspaper, or not lighting up your home like a show off.

Answer 11

Send e-cards. Recycle old ones.

Answer 12

Paint everything green, paint yourself green, make green presents, with green wrapping paper, drive a green car,

Answer 13

Buy locally produced food to reduce the food miles and the packaging.

If possible reuse wrapping from last year or buy recycled paper.

Use a living tree in a pot, so that after Christmas, you can put it in the garden and you can use it next year.

Be organised when you shop, use a list to reduce the trips to the shops.

If you have a holly and fir trees in your garden, clip some of the branches to use as decorations. After christmas, they can be composted.

Try to give gifts that have been made ethically and whose purchase will benefit the local area and people rather than huge corporations.

Use a streamer to reduce the number of saucepans used to cook the veg for the christmas dinner.

Merry Xmas all

Answer 14

.Instead of sending xmas cards at work donate the money saved to charity instead

.Send e cards to as many people as you can

.Recycle all your plastics, cards, wrapping paper,tins and glass.

.Buy local produce as much as you can

.Buy a xmas tree with roots so that you can use it next year

.Donate all good quality toys that are no longer required to oxfam to resell.

Freecycle anything else that is no longer required

.use led lights on your tree

.Don't bother lighting up outside save yourself some money.

.Instead of buying cheap gimicky gifts that end up in the bin, buy something edible or something that might be more boring, but will be used .such as socks or undies

Use recycled wrapping paper or newspaper.

Compost all your veggie peelings

don't buy as much food, most of it will end up in the bin before you get the chance to eat it .its only two days remember.

Try not too buy over packaged goods, hard I know Some toys are so hard to get into cos of the amount of packaging.

Answer 15

I think to make Christmas greener first we need to make sure the bulbs we use for decorations are florescent this will use up less energy and think of the percentage that use up electricity. and instead of going out all the time for your shopping go on one massive trip and get everything on that day. Also instead of buying loads of wrapping paper be creative maybe make a wrapping out of cool old magazines or newspapers. My final point is when we go to buy all are gifts and food maybe buy one of those bags that you put all your things into to reduce the amount of plastic bags we use in total. this would help the most if you do your shopping ONLINE it would reduce fumes because those big trucks that deliver it ti your house have a lot more places to go as well .Merry Greenmass everybody

Answer 16

Spray Paint

Answer 17

By recycling christmas cards, unwanted toys by eating organic vegetables, recycling Xmas decorations,wrapping paper and gift bags and by re using artificial trees or renting trees that are alive rather than buying dead ones. I'm a vegetarian so I 'm also thinking of the planet by not by not eating meat. If you do eat meat you could choose a vegetarian meal option . If we all make little steps like that it will be a big leap forward for our planet !!

Answer 18

Dont forget to grab a granny or grandad to share your christmas day.to share your family fun To share your Christmas dinner To share your Christmas fire .To bring a little warmth and comfort into this troubled world.A very merry christmas to every one of you.

Answer 19

Compost your Christmas tree. Don't plant it. We did that once and it grew and grew and grew. In the end we had to chop it down and then chop it up.

Answer 20

If you have kids, ask all the relatives NOT to buy a gift, but instead to give the cash saved, either for saving or for the child to buy something s/he really wants.   Not only does this reduce physical consumption but it should also save on all that whining and impatience associated with big piles of presents under the tree.  Too many presents at Christmas or birthday are a perfect way to spoil a child and teach them that it's OK to overconsume.

Avariation: all the money given could go into a kitty and each year a different relative buys a really good, and long-lasting present on a rota basis.

Answer 21

Well if it gets any greener it will not be Christmas the government is doing that for us not allowed to send Christmas cards in school  in case it may offend other religions

No seriously

why don't people give presents in gift bags and reuse them next year and do away with Christmas paper one year without Christmas paper would save so many trees or resources and what good is Christmas paper  its hard to wrap splits and is ripped off and thrown away a gift bag although is still paper can be reused over and over again and looks more expensive wishing you all a merry Christmas from Dave

Answer 22

dont light the whole of your street with your xmas decorations. why do people feel the need to do it why cant people just be happy with a few on the xmas tree. recycle all your waste (wrapping paper, cards etc)

Answer 23

Use LED's In Christmas Lights.  Buy A Real Tree From A Company Which Plants Another Sapling when They Cut Yours Down. ( Real Trees Decompose Naturally Where As Plastic Trees, Whilst They Last Longer Will Never Naturally Rot),  Use Paper Wrapping Paper Which Is Not Coated In A Plastic Film ( Can Be Recycled ), Recycle All Your Christmas Cards.  When Cooking Use Reusable Crockery (No disposable Cooking Trays).  If Your Having A Party Put A bin Out Specifically For Glass Bottles ( Beer, Wine etc..) And These Can Be Recycled Afterwards. Use Organic Produce Whenever Possible ( No Fertilisers To Damage Soil And Pollute Water Systems)  And Buy Local Produce ( Helps Support Your Local Community And Uses Less Fuels To Transport Them Which Means Lower Carbon Dioxide Emissions )

PS. Where can you buy a whattson?  

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR !

Answer 24

i can not believe all you miserable individuals, all you people do not realise that global warming is a natural thing and it will occur over a course of time. that is nature. in fact my company has been forcibably ejected from its site in southwark london for a recycling plant. i have worked at this site for 42 years. will southwark recycle me a job. think the long game.

Answer 25

Keep your plants well watered.

Answer 26

Recycling wrapping paper which i have done for 2 - 3 years now.

Answer 27

Do the big send a charity Christmas card to the office, basically give money to a good cause and write a Christmas message on a bauble, cool. Don't buy too much food coz shops are open boxing day!

Answer 28

stop eating meat. You can have an excellent Christmas without meat. Just look for some nice recipes in any magazine these days. Let the animals live, they have the same right to this planet as we do.

Bring your own bad (cloth-made...) when you do the shopping.

Find out where your clothes are made (in India? Be careful, they hardly have any restrictions when it comes to child workers, acids (for bleaching clothes) amount of working hours...) And DO NOT use Chlorine when you do the washing! That is pure poison to the water.

Small things like asking for example Mc Donald´s NOT to put a lid on your coffee. Anything you can think of. And DO that; think! It is soon to late to save our beautiful planet earth.

Answer 29

there are so many things you can do to make your christmas a greener one.

Almost everything can be recycled now! You empty glass bottles from all that extra christmas bubbly, plastic bottles, your xmas cards and wrapping paper.

Limit the food you buy so that its not wasted and compost the leftovers or feed them to the birds/your dog or something like that.

Either buy an artifical tree that you can reuse year after year or even better buy a real one with roots and replant it each year in the garden. Dont buy new decorations every year, stick to ones that are special to you and your family like nannas old glass decorations or babys first christmas decorations and other special ones like that. to fill in any gaps make decorations you can eat, cookies and sweets. Yum, use christmas spices in the recipies and they even make your room smell nice!! (saves on pine fresh christmas tree smelling sprays! lol) Use energy saving lights with LED bulbs.

Shut your doors and make sure the seals on your windows are decent to cut down your heating bills, dont use a tumble dryer where possible dry your clothes on a radiator. Same goes all year round!! :)

Re use gift bags, dont use foil wraping paper, walk or take the bus to the shops if possible, Take your own reused carrier bags or a shopper when doing your buying for xmas food and gifts, Dont put your fruit and veg from the suermarket in the little plastic bags to seperate it use paper to wrap them or something else (maybe a new use for your old giftbags! hehe)

As tempting as it is to have the TV on constantly watching all those xmas specials and films havent you probably seen most of them 100 times before?

We keep all out bottled drinks outside the back door during the winter, it keeps it colder! Also iliminates the need for the spare drinks fridge we use during the summer

The perfect gift for a 'eco warror' :) pay for their car CO2 emitions to be nutralised through this website - http://www.targetneutral.com/TONIC/index... or give a gift tree. Buy a film renting subscription for the movie nut in your family rather then a bunch of dvds, wind up torches and phone chargers make good and unusual gifts. Use ebay for gifts! it saves things going into the bin and saves you money in the prosess. If your thinking of buying a silly novilty gift for someone dont, chances are they will just throw it away, which brings me to another great tip Freecycle unwanted christmas gifts - www.freecycle.org

Limit the packaging on everything you buy and if it has to be packed then make it recyclable packing. Lets be fair you cant not buy your childs dream toy because it has a lot of packing around it. 'Sorry jimmy bob, santa didnt bring you the space rocket you wanted, there was to much packaging on it' Na!

Theres so many things you can do to go green at christmas and all year round and even if you only do a couple of things on the list you will have helpted

Merry Christmas

Answer 30

Put a sprig of holly on your Christmas cake !!

Answer 31

At my work, we all donate to a charity  as xmas (normally RLNI as its local) instead of everyone sending loads of xmas cards to each other..  It has lots of benefits:  Helps the charity, saves trees and postage (so saves fuel emissions) and also saves people time by not writing six million xmas cards each!