Doing away with wrapping paper and upcycling discards: How some families are reducing waste this Christmas
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Doing away with wrapping paper and upcycling discards: How some families are reducing waste this Christmas
Ms Sheri Goh and her mother Madam Lily Chua are practising a zilch-waste material Christmas this year. (Photo: Jalelah Abu Baker)
SINGAPORE: Ms Sheri Goh has a large family. She has an elder sister and 13 cousins simply on her mother's side. She and her cousins accept 12 children amidst them. This means that Christmas can be a big, messy and wasteful affair.
To make souvenir-giving more manageable, the family has worked out a strategy. Each child gets iii gifts.
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"That'southward still a huge number of presents with a huge amount of wrapping. Every year, I've noticed, we fill ii to three garbage numberless of wrapping waste matter," the 43-year-old told CNA.
Things will exist a little different this year.
On the proffer of a cousin, the family is doing abroad with the wrapping of gifts. If they must, they are to utilize paper or waste paper. Ms Goh, an editor with a religious publication, will apply junk mail she started collecting a few months ago equally wrapping paper.
She is besides putting more than thought into her wrapping.
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"Using gum instead of record makes for easier recycling afterwards. I'm also using ribbons that I already take at dwelling, likewise as re-purposed ribbons from various product packaging, to make the presents look nicer," she said.
"My mom came from a poor family so she's always had the ethos that we should not waste matter, that we should endeavour to reuse every bit much as we can," Ms Goh said.
But giving presents is not the only style to celebrate Christmas, she added. She lamented that it has become as well commercialised. This year, she is giving her parents the gift of time.
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"My parents and I are giving to each other a road trip upwardly to Malaysia, where they will pay for nutrient and transport and we (she and her husband) will pay for lodging. The gift of fourth dimension with each other is priceless, doesn't create any souvenir-wrapping waste, is definitely something the other party volition desire and will concluding forever," she said.
HANDMADE WITH Beloved
Others are making the try to create their own gifts. Ms Sheau Chan, 46, has made cardholders using curtain fabric swatches that would otherwise be discarded. Her Christmas cards are made out of sturdy mooncake boxes.
She reuses the wrapping paper from the gifts she receives. She also collects Esplanade concert programmes "because they were quite pretty" to use as wrappers.
Ms Chan, who usually hosts her friends for Christmas, said that she tends to get either bigger or more than gifts equally the host, but she has told her friends there was no need for that.
"I told them to get me vegetables that last for a long time, or abode-fabricated items, because my best friend bakes. They can give me a cauliflower. I'll exist more than happy," said the events planner.
Similarly, Ms Julia Anna Deufel, 27, is making the probiotic drink, kombucha, and tempeh (fermented soybean cake) to give as gifts.
She asked that her aunt - who oft gives her online shopping vouchers - to donate to her diving fund. Ms Deufel is working towards getting certified to be able to plant seaweed and coral while diving.
She will not be putting upwardly a Christmas tree at home this yr, a break away from a family tradition. Instead she has a small reusable South$ii tree. Her Advent wreath, which is traditionally used in the lead-upwards to Christmas, is besides not typical. Information technology is made of used wine bottles which likewise function as candle holders.
"A real wreath will demand to come from somewhere where pino trees grow, so information technology's probably going to come on a plane, with a high carbon footprint," she said.
Practising a zero-waste matter Christmas is an extension of their daily habits.
For case, Ms Goh has been using a reusable bag for more than 20 years. Clothes are also always handed down, and some clothes past Madam Chua are still being worn 40 years on.
Amount OF Waste matter EXPECTED TO INCREASE OVER FESTIVE SEASON
The Singapore Surroundings Council (SEC) said the amount of waste generated in Singapore has increased seven-folds over the terminal four decades.
Coupled with depression plastic recycling, tonnes of food waste and the "traditional Asian view of over-preparing festive meals and elaborate festive packaging", the corporeality of waste is expected to increase over the festive season, the SEC's caput of Environmental Certifications Liow Chean Siang.
Through its food loss and nutrient waste study, the SEC found that consumers avoid nutrient waste product by keeping unconsumed food, and past not being swayed by promotional offers to buy excess nutrient items that are potentially wasted.
Mr Liow urged merrymakers to adopt these habits, and to adopt the "5 Rs" - reducing, reusing, recycling, refusing and repurposing.
He suggested donating unwanted gifts instead of throwing them abroad, and reducing the use of gift wrappers.
"Giving pre-loved items every bit gifts is trending and is gaining larger acceptance in other markets, equally more people desire to be sustainable and exist part of a circular economy where nothing goes to waste material," he said.
He cautioned that as more waste is generated, the impact of climate change such as ascent bounding main level, loss of biodiversity, and changes in crop yield may pose significant risks to the way people live.
But anybody tin can play a part is trying to mitigate this in part by consuming less and wasting less, he added.
"Information technology is important for Singaporeans to think that less is ever best."
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/zero-waste-christmas-xmas-recycling-gifts-upcycling-245496
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