Repak Green Christmas 2007 - Get Ready

The 12 Days of Greener Christmas

Day 1 Choose the right Christmas tree
Remember to buy real Christmas trees as they each remove 100,000 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide during their 9 years before maturing. For every tree chopped down another is planted. Noble Fir and Lodgepole Pine are said to be environmentally friendly as they will not shed their needles. Also treat a cut tree, like a cut flower – don’t over expose it to light and heat and top up with water daily.

Day 2 Organise Household Bins
Put three bins in the kitchen: one for recyclables; one for compostable vegetable waste; one for general waste. Organise a dedicated storage space in your backgarden or kitchen. Most hardware stores like Woodies or B&Q sell a range of special recycling bins and, if you have space, it’s worth investing and installing these into this dedicated area.

Day 3 Composting
Put a small compost bin beside your general waste bin or if you’ve space build a compost pile in your garden for kitchen vegetable waste and garden waste. As well as your brown and green food waste, wormeries can break down cooked meats that other conventional garden composters cannot deal with. After a few months the compost should become dark and crumbly and you can then start using it as top-soil or fertilizer to make your garden greener than ever.

Day 4 Packaging Thrift
Check for products with less packaging and use re-usable plates, cups and bags. Buy vegetables loose. Put leftover turkey and ham into reusable lunch boxes or containers with lids instead of using non-recyclable aluminium foil or plastic film.

Day 5 Find your nearest Repak Green Christmas Centre or Bring Bank.
You may be surprised at the wide variety of materials they can accept and most have extended opening hours over Christmas. Visit www.repak.ie or check yourlocal paper or for further details.

Day 6 Christmas wrapping.
Gather all the wrapping paper, cardboard boxes from presents into large bags for recycling or reuse. Also consider re-using brown paper and bits of fabric and ribbon to wrap presents and make them more individual and personal.

Day 7 Morning After The Party
Gather up all glass bottles and aluminium cans in separate bags or bins. Remember plastic bottles (PET and HDPE bottles) can also be recycled at most Recycling Centres – look for 3 chasing arrows with either a number 1 or number 2 inside – this means it can be recycled in Ireland. If you’re looking for tips on how to improve your party, there’s a good chance you’ll meet a like minded reveler at the Bring Bank!

Day 8 Be Clean
Wash ‘n’ squash Tetra Pak containers. Rinse out bottle and cans, remove lids and squash plastic containers to save space. Remember don’t litter at bring banks. Take home any boxes or containers you used to bring materials to your local bring bank in.

Day 9 Card Recycling
Collect all Christmas cards together, which can also be recycled. Almost 4 million Christmas cards were recycled last year. Consider sending e-cards too to save on paper usage.

Day 10 Recycle used batteries
Collect up all the used batteries. Consider giving a battery re-charger and rechargeable batteries for battery operated toys and gadgets. Look up www.repak.ie to find your nearest recycling centre that accept batteries.

Day 11 New Gadgets for Christmas?
There are estimated to be over a million mobile phones dormant in Ireland and instead of leaving it dormant, bring it your Green Christmas Recycling Centre as most of them accept old mobile phones. You could also try selling your unwanted gadget on www.ebay.ie or donating to charities looking for the products.

Day 12 Christmas Trees Recycling
Take down decorations and tree. Remember you can recycle it at your local Christmas tree recycling centre. Visit www.repak.ie for more details.