Most of us may have already wrapped our haul of Christmas presents, but it’s not too late to consider ways to avoid some of the extra waste created amid the silly season.
Christmas is considered the the world’s greatest annual environmental disaster, responsible for creating an extra 30 per cent of waste.
Kiwis alone go through 10,000 trees-worth of wrapping paper and throw out a third of our Christmas food.
So, in the final lead-up to the big day, 1News has some tips to think green.
Firstly, consider the Christmas tree. According to Sarah Pritchett of WasteMINZ, a fake tree needs to be kept for at least 10 years for it to have less of an environmental impact than a real tree.
Then there is the wrapping paper. It's estimated Kiwis use 1600 tonnes of it every Christmas.
WasteMINZ's Kahurangi Carter suggests using a scarf or pictures drawn by the kids to avoid using a forest full of paper.
And lastly, there's the food waste. As a nation we spend an extra $100 million on food at this time of the year, but roughly a third of it goes to waste.
"Supermarkets make it really tempting for us - they have these lovely displays of gorgeous food. We also panic buy a bit, we think oh we need to have enough food, we can't run out on Christmas day," Pritchett says.
"Planning is a really good way of dealing with this - and make sure you only buy what's on the shopping list," she says.
As for the leftovers?
"You might give parcels to your friends and family to take away or freeze it for a later date," is WasteMINZ advice.
And the message to shoppers: Don't buy something just for the sake of it, because every year thousands of unwanted gifts end up on Trade Me and many toys end up in the landfill.
"We need to be a little more thoughtful about what we're getting. People don't actually want stuff. I know through Covid we've had lots of families apart so this year, the gift of presence rather than presents is the best thing you can do," Carter says.
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