The Environmental Impact of the Christmas holiday season

1

• The Environmental Impact of the Christmas holiday
  season

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The UK Produces Rubbish

• In the UK we consume a lot!
• As a result we throw away a lot of rubbish!
• Currently, levels of household waste in the UK is
  growing at 3 each year.
• This means the rubbish we produce is DOUBLING
  every 20 years.

3
Christmas Rubbish

• Waste levels spike during Christmas and New Year.
• Around one tenth of our annual rubbish (3
  million tonnes) is generated over the festive
  period.

4
UK Consumer Spending

• UK Citizens spend 13 billion on Christmas each
  year.
• Individually they spend an average of 543
  celebrating Christmas, with most going on gifts
  (215) and festive food and drinks (127).

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Average UK Spending
6
Cost of Waste Disposal?

• The government-sponsored RECYCLE NOW
  organisation estimates that 1 billion Christmas
  cards, eight million Christmas trees and 750
  million extra bottles and 500 million jars needed
  to be disposed of each year.
• And thats just the UK!!!

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Christmas Rubbish

• So how many hundreds of millions of other people
  worldwide also generate Christmas waste surpluses?

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Where Does all the rubbish go?

• Once the holidays are over where do we put the
  bottles, jars, discarded paper, cards, uneaten
  food and old trees?
• A hole in the ground.
• Currently 75 of waste ends as landfill.

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Environmental Impact

• As well as additional rubbish the UK generates 2
  million tonnes of extra greenhouse gases!
• Caused by roasting turkeys, watching more TV
  Christmas lights in homes and streets.
• This is bad news for climate change.