How to take plastic out of your decorations

East African Trading Company/facebook

By Doloresz Katanich with AP

Published on 15/11/2019 - 21:26

It takes just a few small steps to make big changes, and you can try it this Christmas.

Sustainability was a top trend at one London festive fair. Retailers displayed their eco-friendly new Christmas ranges, such as decorations made from cow horns and blankets made with upcycled plastic bottles.

Changing your approach to Christmas cards is a start.

Currently the glitter and plastic often featured in Christmas cards makes them non-recyclable, so make your own instead. And if you do not trust your DIY confections, there are some memorable 3D pop-up cards offered by UK-based Cardology. You can find traditional ones printed on recycled material, such as the ones by Gotamago.

Forget plastic Christmas tree decorations

There is a wide range of plastic decoration available for a relatively low price in the big supermarkets, but by the next year they seem to be shabby, broken and some parts missing. So we easily end up buying an entirely new set of decorations at the following Christmas. While it seems that we all have a few old bits and pieces of Christmas decorations, some of which are older than ourselves.

At the annual festive fair Spirit of Christmas, UK-based firm Artifactually brought back those memories with their glass-blown Christmas decorations, stating that they might even last for generations.

If you find that glass is too fragile, you might want to go for horn. That's cow horn.

The East African Trading Company showcased their range of decorations made from cow horn at the fair among 900 independent retailers.

The options are countless

From the kitchen to the living room, you can find countless options to switch to plastic-free in the house. UK-based Weaver Green, for example, offers handwoven textiles, such as rugs and pillowcases made of upcycled plastic bottles.

Each blanket is made up of 300 recycled plastic bottles. Another company makes reusable beeswax wraps to replace your plastic cling film in the kitchen. You can find pine resin, organic Jojoba oil and locally sourced beeswax among the ingredients. The company Beeswax Wrap Co. says UK householders use enough cling film in a year to wrap around the earth thirty times.