Our green bin was full even before Christmas Eve rolled around. I joined my husband outside, where he was stomping down its contents to create more room. In the then still-unseasonably warm air it was hard to imagine a sleigh crossing the night sky. Going back into the sweet warmth, the clementines had attracted fruit flies and a three-week-old non-shed tree was finally yielding its scent, the gifts and floor under it strewn with promise-breaking needles. I was already counting the hours until this week, when I could take it all down.
Call me Scrooge or the Grinch, I don’t care, my favourite part of Christmas is now – when it’s all over. I make no secret of finding Christmas oppressive, and I don’t mean two-hour carol services or the delicious collective pause. It’s mostly the pressure to consume, when buying is such a burden for many, and when so much of what we buy is not needed or wanted and soon discarded.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s Circular Economy and Waste Statistics and Highlights report published last December underlined that Ireland produced 15.7 million tonnes of waste in 2022. Packaging waste alone was 1.2 million tonnes. Further, our circularity rate (a measure of recycling versus consumption that reflects our efficiency at dealing with waste) is just 1.8 per cent. The European Union average is 11.5 per cent.
We made an incredible recycling stride in 2024 with the launch of the deposit return scheme. But we also need to consume less and reuse more. With Christmas finally over (*leaps for joy*), it’s time to consider how as individuals we can make our new year’s resolution a circular revolution. And, as with any resolution, you should start small but tell everyone. So here’s my shortlist of four ideas every household can adopt.
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Recycle sportsgear, eliminate party bags: four easy climate resolutions for every household
1. Reuse. Try a gear exchange. In Ireland we discard 164,000 tonnes of textiles per year. This is the second-highest rate of per capita textile waste generation in the EU, according to the Circularity Gap Report by Circle Economy Foundation, commissioned by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communication and published last October.
[ There is something delusional about your frantic trips to the recycling binOpens in new window ]
In our local scout troop, parents are encouraged to select uniforms from a bag of hand-me-downs. Gear exchange is one of the ideas given a mention in the GAA Green Clubs toolkit. If every sports club in Ireland made gear exchange the norm, this could save hundreds of thousands of plastic-based garments and shoes from needlessly being produced, to be worn for just one season, destined for an overflowing clothes pod or some well-intentioned clothing drive for Africa. Before you say it, no, named sponsors won’t mind – most clubs’ lead sponsors are static from year to year, and what matters to them is not a new jersey but a commitment from the club to regularly talking up the support they give their community, which can easily be promoted on social media.
2. Reduce. How about a ‘no party bag’ pledge? Our children don’t need to be sent home with twizzle-me-bobs of plastic and packets of sugar, and parents don’t need the additional hassle or cost of procuring them. The party bag habit got its toe in the door playing up the etiquette of gift exchange and watched the money roll in. As a class, as a school, we can easily reset everyone’s expectations and benefit the environment too.
3. Collaborate and campaign. Alone you’re a killjoy, an evil nerd or a grinch, and not just in the eyes of the under nines. Together, the members of a club, workplace or school can undo decades of disposable habits in the space of a season, a half year or a term. Figure out who has skin in the game and share your ideas with them. The parents’ association at our school recently introduced a voluntary smartphone pledge. A super win for the sustainability of our kids’ mental health. They achieved it through a careful gathering in of opinions and non-judgmental figuring out what would work for the majority. Where social media has failed our children, online tools such as SurveyMonkey and Google Forms can help build a mandate, while WhatsApp groups can easily spread a sustainable revolution.
4. Say no to excess. Sometimes it’s about nudging changes in behaviour; sometimes it’s just calling out unnecessary waste. At the beginning of December, for instance, the Santa Dash fun run in St Anne’s Park in Dublin attracted more than 1,000 entries, handing out disposable costumes “made from 100 per cent virgin polyester felt in plastic packaging”. As part of its “sustainability” commitment, participants were encouraged to “use them again at home”. When life is as frenetic as it was in 2024, it’s tempting to let it all go – whether it’s another coffee cup, party bag or reusable Santa suit. But sometimes you just need to make the point and others will follow.
You can find everything you need to make your 2025′s new year resolution a circular revolution on Green Schools from An Taisce; the GAA’s Green Clubs. For more resources for communities and households try CRNI, My Waste, StopFoodWaste.ie, Voice and the Rediscovery Centre.
Angela Ruttledge is a former restaurateur who writes about food and sustainability
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