If you've resisted the festive urge to be the first to get your Christmas decorations up and alight, then good news - we've got some handy tips to help you save energy this Christmas.
Did you know it's now possible to buy energy saving and solar powered rope lights and other exterior Christmas lights? Solar lights that charge during the day and timer technology to switch them on just in the evening.
We all know leaving interior lights on when no-one's in the room is wasteful, so don't leave your tree lights on either. A typical 100 string Christmas tree light left on for 10 hours a day, over the 12 days of Christmas will produce enough CO2 to inflate 60 balloons.
LED lights use a fraction of the power (90%) of normal Christmas lights.
Think about using recycled wrapping for presents, or get creative with something reusable. Americans produce 1 million extra tons of waste during the holidays, and last Christmas, the UK used enough one-use wrapping to cover the entire surface of Guernsey!
And with all that cooking and company calling round, you'll find the rooms can quickly get uncomfortably hot, so don't forget to turn down thermostats or even switch room radiators off completely.
And talking of parties, whilst it may be tempting to buy in paper plates and plastic cups, that's all extra landfill. If large numbers of glasses are required, then many supermarkets offer a glass loan service. Over Christmas, we traditionally produce more than 750 million extra wine bottles! Don't forget to recycle.
Lastly, the Christmas tree. Real trees can be recycled afterwards - either mulched, burnt or planted for use again next year, whereas artificial trees are usually made from wire and plastics which don't bio-degrade at all well. True an artificial tree is re-usable but sale statistics have shown, on average, artificial trees only last for 6 years before they're replaced.
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