During every festive season, families and friends from all parts of the world will gather around to celebrate the meaningful occasion once a year. Whilst our mums and grandmas are busy preparing for the day, we shall not forget to get into the festive spirit by showing the environment a bit of kindness.
Here are some ways for you to help reduce the amount of waste produced at your household during festive season.
5 Ways to be more Sustainable
1. Use recycled paper for gifts wrapping or better still, leave them as it is
We know wrapping papers from the store are so tempting to look at! Handpick your gifts too
because you know your friends best! And honestly, who doesn’t love gifts curated specially for them? Pick their favourites to be put together and give them a surprise. You can also get creative and get things done slightly different from others by using old newspapers or leftover brown paper for gifts wrapping instead. It is even much better if you can skip the whole wrapping process part and just leave the gifts as it is. You can save time and resources simultaneously. Great idea right?
2. Opt for loose vegetables and plan your meals ahead to avoid food wastage
Planning your meals ahead is one alternative to prevent food wastage. Buy only what you need for that meal especially perishable ingredients or share the stash with a friend. They might go bad within days if you do not use them, causing you to throw them out before you could consume them.
When you go for grocery shopping, opt for loose vegetables rather than the prepackaged ones to reduce the amount of plastic packaging. Or better still make it a pot luck where everyone gets to show off their cooking/ baking skills by bringing their favourite dish to share! Besides sharing food, we can also share the various culture, believes and practices of different festivities.
3. Buy items in bulk with less packaging
Do you know that items bought in bulk are much cheaper than individual ones? When you buy your groceries in bulk, you can eliminate some need for packaging as most of the products in stores contain packaging that costs money and natural resources to produce them.
Bulk stores are blooming in Malaysia like mushrooms where they encourage you to bring your own glass jars, cotton bags and containers to shop! Everything is nicely placed in big jars and containers where you can pick and fill up as much as you need. You only pay for how much you take. This allows you to take how much you need and things do not get forgotten and go bad because you forgot about it. By buying in small amounts, you get to pick a variety to try! By doing so, you can save money and provide a positive impact to the environment in a long run.
4. Get creative! Create your own decorations using recyclable items
Get your hands and mind working together and produce magic. There are a lot of videos and tutorials for the tips and tricks to make your own decorations using recyclable items. This also saves you the hassle of going out and manoeuvring the crowds to get new decorations. Do it at your leisure in the comfort of your home, any time and any day.
You can also reuse your old decorative ornaments, give them some new touch to look new! Everything is just at your fingertips so there is no excuse for not doing it this time. Did we mention that it will save your pockets too?
5. Send E-cards to your families and friends instead of conventional greeting cards
Skip the hassle of queuing up at post office especially during festive season and opt for e-card instead. Put your creative editing skills to work! Greet your friends and families with your latest family photo.
We are sure many would love to see how much the kids have grown over the year especially those overseas. This will make a pretty phone wallpaper especially the grandparents Not only there’s no paper involved, you can kill two birds with one stone as it can reduce the carbon footprint too!
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