Easy Ways to Save on Waste this Christmas

Rebecca Wilson, passionate about recycling across South Yorkshire
Rebecca Wilson
22 Dec 2025

Did you know at this time of year people generate around 30% more waste?

 

In the UK alone, households throw away food worth an estimated £64m each holiday season. This includes hundreds of thousands of turkeys, and millions of mince pies and brussels sprouts.

 

But just a few simple steps could help save you money at an expensive time of year and protect precious resources.

Christmas dinner

The festive season is an expensive time of year and many of us are looking at ways to reduce costs but still enjoy the celebrations.

We’ve put together some handy tips to help money go further and benefit the environment. By planning ahead and making a few simple changes we can reduce waste at Christmas which has got to be good for everyone.

Top tips include:

  1. Planning out Christmas dinners to reduce food waste and using leftover food in new recipes.

  2. Christmas jumpers are really popular but one in five jumpers are only worn once over the festive period so to save money and resources why not wear last year’s or buy a second hand one or do a Christmas jumper swap?

  3. Plan Christmas presents in advance to reduce last minute unwanted gifts and try to use recyclable wrapping paper or reusable gift bags.

 

There are some statistics behind our festive waste:

Did you know that the card material used at Christmas would stretch between London and Lapland over 100 times or that around 600 million batteries are thrown away each year in the UK, with around 189 million being used over Christmas?

Brits eat approximately 175 million mince pies over Christmas, using 175 tonnes of aluminium packaging and the UK spends around £4.6 billion on Boxing Day alone, with the average shopper spending £236 each.

Learn more waste reduction tips over the Christmas period by following our social media channels.

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