A Green Christmas
Posted by David Ruffley, MP for Bury St Edmunds, at 11:04, Tue 19 December 2006:
Christmas is a wonderful time of year; a time for family, friends and celebration. But we must also reflect on our environment during the festive period.
In Britain each year, we send each other somewhere in the region of 1 billion Christmas cards, wrap our presents in more than 80 square kilometres of wrapping paper, and empty more than 20 million glass jars and bottles over the festive period. If we recycled just half of this we could make a massive difference.
This Christmas I hope we can do our bit locally for the environment.
Last year I recycled all my Christmas Cards via the Woodland Trust at the local Tesco store in Bury St Edmunds. I was so impressed with the initiative that this year I have arranged to have Woodland Trust bins in my Woolpit Office so that members of the public who can’t take their cards all the way to Bury St Edmunds or Stowmarket can drop in and recycle their cards there.
Let’s also remember the merits of a real Christmas tree rather than a fake one. A real tree can be replanted and reused in future years or recycled and turned into soil improver. A fake tree on the other hand will end up in a landfill when it reaches the end of its useful life.
Near me we are lucky enough to have the Rougham Estate – one of the finest growers of Christmas Trees in the UK. For the third time in five years the Rougham Estate is supplying 10 Downing Street with the tree that stands outside the front door!
And when we all do our big Christmas food shopping for the festive period we can take our own carrier bags. Not only will this help the environment but in local Tesco stores you will receive a ‘green’ Club Card point for every bag you reuse.
During the festive period we will all be at home much more than normal and the amount of energy we use will go up. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs recently announced that the domestic sector accounts for 29 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions – that is more than from road transport.
We should all keep this in mind during the Christmas period. When leaving the room think about switching the light off or better still installing energy saving bulbs. If every conventional light bulb in domestic households was replaced with an energy efficient one, total demand for electricity would fall by 3.5 percent.
When making a pot of tea or coffee after Christmas lunch why not boil only the water that you will use? If we did this with every cup of tea we made we would save enough electricity in a year to run half of all the street lighting in the country.
Being green this Christmas isn’t just better for the environment – it’s cheaper for the family.
Christmas is a very special time of year. Let’s guarantee great Christmases for future generations by playing our part in a cleaner, greener future.
Happy recycling!
Comments
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Posted by Martin Clouter, 00:32, Wed 20 December 2006: (Is this post abusive?) #
This is all very nice David, but how about tackling some real issues. Yes you may say, the enviroment is top of the agenda... yeah, but what about honesty.
How about tackling the Government on the draconian Inquiry Act, no it won't save the world from Cameron and the Sun but it may save this country from this appallingly and increasingly fascist Government. Get your finger out David, do your job, stop pandering, and playing for the payrise, you are there as a representative, not for yourself.
Stop ducking and Please stand up and be counted.