Christmas is, amongst other things, a time of over indulgence and wastage, but it doesn’t have to be that way. By thinking carefully about your actions you can cut your Christmas wastage quite easily. First of all the Christmas tree – you may think you are doing your bit for the environment by using a fake tree, but apparently not. According to the Carbon Trust, artificial trees have a carbon footprint at least ten times larger than a real tree as they are made from plastic.

So you’re better of with the real thing, but if you are worried about sending your tree to landfill after the festive period, there are further greener alternatives. Companies exist that will deliver you a real Christmas tree in a pot and collect it after Christmas. www.ChristmasTreeMan.co.uk is one example, they deliver and collect the tree at the customers convenience and then look after the tree for the rest of the year so that it can be used again and again year on year.

Another major source of waste at this time of year is food. According to LoveFoodHateWaste.com, the government website aimed at stopping us wasting food, 64 per cent of us predict there will be leftovers from Christmas day. The website has a useful food calculator to help you work out exactly how much food you are going to need to feed your Christmas guests.