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Twinkling lights and festive feasting—but Christmas also has its dark side: an extra meal ends in the bin. And then there’s the gift wrapping.
A fine festive roast, Christmas carp, vegetables, fruit—often carted from far away—tasty cheese, fine sausages, sophisticated desserts, and cookies: it’s time for a little more, they say during the holidays. Austria’s households produce 4.5 million tons of waste every year. Despite high prices, food accounts for 16 percent of residual waste. When we surprise our loved ones with a delicious meal, our eyes are often bigger than our stomachs. If you buy your ingredients with a shopping list, you will throw away less afterwards.
Greenpeace has calculated that at least one extra meal is thrown away around the holidays. The waste of animal products, in particular, has an enormous CO2 footprint. One kilo of beef produces around 15 kg of CO2 equivalent. You could travel the distance from Vienna to Berlin by train for the same consumption.
According to the Association of Austrian Waste Management Companies, ten to 20 percent more manure is produced around Christmas and New Year. On average, that’s an increase of 34,000 full garbage cans daily. The enormous quantities of packaging material (shipping cartons and bottles) that result in residual waste are also significant problems. Every year, we spend around 360 to 400 euros on Christmas packaging—many presents are hardly ever used or are returned immediately after the holidays.
This is disastrous for the environment: according to a calculation by the environmental protection organization, 1.4 million returned parcels full of new clothing and electronics have to be destroyed in Austria alone.
The Nordmann fir is the most popular tree
It increasingly adorns our living rooms long before Christmas Eve. In Austria, 2.8 million Christmas trees are put up and disposed of after Christmas.
“Christmas must not become a symbol of overflowing garbage cans and wasted resources. Packaging piles up, food is unused in the bin, and presents disappear in the return madness. Behind all of this is a burden on our environment that we can all avoid together,” explains Stefan Stadler, spokesperson for Greenpeace.
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