Taunton Deane MP, Rebecca Pow has pledged to cut down on Christmas waste this year by sending an ‘E-Christmas Card’, instead of the usual, posted MP’s Christmas Card.
Commenting on her decision, Rebecca said: “As a keen environmentalist, I felt it was important to do my bit to cut down on the vast amount of waste that we create as a country each year and the Christmas period, when we generate 30% more waste than usual, is a source of a great deal of rubbish. Much of this waste ends up in landfill even though it is recyclable. We use enough wrapping paper to wrap 9 times around the equator, and approximately a billion Christmas cards change hands, which laid end to end would stretch five times around the world. Unfortunately much of this is likely to be dumped or burnt and preventing some of this unnecessary waste would be helpful.”
“Most Christmas cards are paper based and can therefore be recycled, along with their envelopes, in domestic recycling collections or at local recycling points and I would encourage anyone to make use of these services if they do have cards to dispose of after Christmas. I don’t in any way want to detract from the very valuable fund raising opportunity Christmas card sales make for many charities but simply urge that recycling becomes part and parcel of this.”
“As well as paper rubbish, 6 million Christmas trees are discarded each year, that’s 250 tonnes worth of material that could be composted through local composting services or, for those who garden, in home composting bins.”
“We generate about 177 million tonnes of waste every year in England which can have a detrimental impact on our precious environment. I want to see the UK move towards a 'zero waste economy' where resources are fully valued, financially and environmentally. This means we reduce, reuse and recycle all we can, and throw things away only as a last resort and to make this work everyone needs to play a part.”
“Much can also be done to reduce and recycle plastic waste and I am delighted that this Government is taking positive steps to address this with a proposed ban on micro plastics in cosmetic and care products, a consultation on reducing single use plastic containers and DEFRA Secretary, Michael Gove announcing a four-point plan for tackling plastic waste. These are all things I have been pushing for as the MP for Taunton Deane and I am delighted the Government has listened.”
For more information on how you can recycle at Christmas, visit Rebecca’s website: www.rebeccapow.org.uk/recycling.