So…my challenge this year is to send as little to landfill as possible this Christmas. I know it’s going to be difficult…but if I’m thinking about it maybe you are too.

I think the biggest impact could be wrapping paper. I have chosen this year to use recycled paper for my presents. I just bought a roll of recycled brown paper from WH Smith £4.99 for 12m. Which all in all…is cheaper per meter than your foiled Christmas paper. I have also bought recycled name tags and string all for a few quid. Great!

Now…making it Christmassy….

Being creatively minded, I’ve decided to use some water based paints to customize my wrapping paper. Not decided how yet.

I thought of using glitter but glitter isn’t good for the environment AND it’s a nightmare to get off your hands….so this needs some thought.

Trying to find something that is biodregradable…and Christmassy is really hard! Spray glitter…not good…glitter…basically a mirco-plastic.

Having now designed my paper ready for using, i’m rather impressed. I found some recycled string also to add a little bit of colour to my presents…and was feeling so good about myself…

HOWEVER! When I started wrapping- slightly cringing at the plastic my niece’s presents where coated in… wrapped the presents very neatly….THEN what did I use to secure the presents….SELLOTAPE! Omg! I never even considered sellotape before!

sellotape (Sticky tape) is manufactured using toxic oils  and polyethylene, both are really bad for the environment- and are not recyclable

Therefore it doesn’t matter how eco my paper is, or my water based paints, my non-glitter designs and my natural heather decorations! I have had to use a toxic plastic to hold it all together!

I feel like I’ve totally failed this task! and although I have some really unique presents- that hopefully people appreciate- the whole purpose and ethics are for nothing.

Note to Self- Next year

• Recycled paper
• Water-based paint (For decoration)
• recycled twine/string
• Brown paper sticky tape

Its definitely  a working progress. One small step for me…a giant leap into understanding how to be Ecological when it comes to Christmas. Damn!