The UK is expected to spend an extra £2.1bn this Christmas period which will generate 30% more waste than usual.
A survey conducted by Mattress Online has revealed that 70% of Brits admit that they buy far more than they need over the festive season.
A huge 275,613 tonnes of waste will be thrown away this Christmas, this is 1.5 times the total weight of the Sydney Opera house.
Food waste is a major culprit in this problem with an estimated 50,544 tonnes of food set to be wasted, according to the study 2/3 of Brits admit that some of their turkey ends up in the bin.
Discarded Christmas lights will total 68,488 miles, this is the same distance as travelling the length of the UK 78 times.
Dumped drink cans will stack 3.8 million times higher than Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.
The amount of sticky tape used could wrap around the world 499 times, and the number of batteries that will be thrown away could power 189,000 cars.
3/4 of Brits admit that they will let their tree go to the landfill, which means that 12,000 tonnes of Christmas trees will be thrown away this year alone.
Emi Murphy, campaigner at Friends of the Earth told Mattress Online: ‘It’s such a special time of year, but Christmas can risk becoming quite intense when it comes to resource use and emissions.
‘It’s actually easier than you might think to have a planet-friendly Christmas.
‘It’s not about being a Scrooge; just making slightly different choices around decorations, food, gifts and travel can really cut down on the impact that your festivities have.’
In related news, waste and recycling company BusinessWaste estimates there are 16.5 million advent calenders containing single-use plastics in circulation this year, enough to stretch from London to the North Pole.
According to the company, it will be impossible to recycle all of these advent calendars because of the mix of materials used to make them. This will mean that the majority will end up either being burned or dumped into a landfill.
Photo Credit – Pixabay