Sometimes you hear something on the radio which makes you cringe. Just before Christmas this happened… A woman rang the radio programme to say that something dreadful had happened. What calamity could this be? It was that she’d forgotten to buy a disposable baking tray for roasting the Christmas turkey… Aaaargh…
Even more sickening to me was that the radio presenter seemed to sympathise with her predicament!
It may not be the biggest waste crime over Christmas with so much disposable party paraphernalia – crackers, poppers, paper napkins, decorations, Christmas cards and wrapping paper of course. But it just seems to emphasise how wasteful so many of us have become. Can’t we even wash up our cooking pans? Perhaps the lady in question doesn’t know that if you soak a pan overnight that it’s generally not so hard to clean the following morning.…
Disposable baking trays are often made from aluminium, which takes a huge amount of energy to make. But they are very recyclable, so if you’ve succumbed to using them or find yourself wondering what to do with someone else’s waste, put it in the recycling bin…
And, whilst we’re on the subject of waste – see if you can reuse the wrapping paper from gifts you receive. I sent a gift wrapped present from the White Company to a friend. She was horrified that it came in multiple boxes with large quantities of gift and tissue paper – but she assured me she’d managed to find a use for all of it, so nothing was thrown away….
I use old Christmas cards for tags, collect paper from friends and family for using again – and have piles of tissue paper and bubble wrap that are re-used multiple times.
Forget wishing for a white Christmas, we should be wishing for less waste at Yuletide, so we can all sing Glad Tidings of Comfort and Joy, for the planet, as well as ourselves!
PS I don’t like Disposable BBQs either.
