Have a very merry sustainable Christmas!

With Christmas on the way, our thoughts here at The Cool Food School HQ are all about how to make this festive season more sustainable and better for the environment. It is a time of massive spending and consuming so there’s plenty of opportunity to make some more eco-friendly choices!

There are lots of places where we can make better choices - from what we put on the table for Christmas dinner and across the festive season, to what gifts we buy and even how we wrap them. 

We try to make things sustainable here at TCFS HQ. We are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but here are the steps we have taken in our business to make Christmas more eco friendly:

• all our packaging from No:Issue is recyclable

• all our flyers are made by eco-friendly Irish printers Factory

• we reuse as much bubble wrap and other packaging materials as possible

• we stock some great eco-friendly gifts, as follows:

• Sustainable selection box from PlayinChoc 

• Reusable sandwich and snack bags, food pouches, straws from Nom Nom Kids

• Eco-friendly, fun cards from Growing Greetings

• Natural rubber teethers and baby toys in recyclable packaging from Oli & Carol

• Recyclable packaging from Pick Plates

• Minimal packaging from Kiddies Food Kutters

So what else can we do?

Gift wrapping :

Firstly, shop your attic or shed or wherever you store your leftover wrapping paper from last year. Use what you have before you buy anything else. If you are buying new wrapping paper, remember that anything with glitter, sparkles, sequins, foil etc. cannot be recycled - no matter how far down your recycling bin you push it!

If you have nothing left from last year, try some of these more sustainable gift wrapping options :

• old newspaper or sheets from a magazine you already own, wrapped with wool/twine/ribbon or raffia like this from The Little Green Shop

• use your kids’ artwork to wrap small gifts - a gift within a gift!

• reusable cloth bags like these ones from Klee Paper, who also stock a great range of recycled wrapping paper

• beeswax wraps like these beautiful ones from Irish company Millbee
  

P.S. a quick word on Christmas cards - I’m not sure what your thoughts are on them but I haven’t sent them out for the past number of years mainly because I’m too lazy but also because, what is the actual point? I see my friends and we exchange cards, I see my family and we exchange cards. The bank sends me a card (why..?)

I do see the value of them for people we don’t see that often (other than Facebook or Instagram!) or for older people who enjoy the tradition and get to connect with people they certainly have not seen in the past couple of years. 

But from a sustainability point of view, the same applies for cards as wrapping paper - they can’t be recycled if they have glitter, foil etc. This year, if you’re on the eco train - consider sending e-greetings or emails!

Gifts ;

There has been an enormous push in the last couple of years to shop local and support businesses in your area. There has also been a massive upswing in shopping on Amazon, let’s be honest. For me, I’ll be avoiding Amazon and focusing on small Irish brands as much as possible. 

Parent disclaimer - I know that not everything Johnny or Maebh have on their lists is going to be available locally but the small “extras” can be bought through Irish sites or local shops!

Here are some of my favourite Irish shops I’ll be supporting this year:

Jiminy - the home of sustainable toys in Ireland. Sharon has a great range of toys, all carefully selected to meet her eco-friendly credentials. I love the Linkilonk Activity tubes and their lovely selection of Irish books

ShopinIreland - Support a small Irish retailer doing their thing. Either making their own crafts or selling carefully selected items for all the family. Great place for Christmas decorations

Gifted from ireland.com - the home of Irish crafts for more than 40 years - shop the real life event or go online and pick out your favourite designers and crafters. I love the men’s grooming brand Machado

AnniePooh - a sustainable online shop, promoting zero waste.

What tips do you have to make your Christmas more sustainable this year?