54 million platefuls of food are thrown away every Christmas – including 10.9 million parsnips, 11.3 million carrots, and 103 million Brussels sprouts. It’s the most wonderful time of the year – for food waste. Oddbox rescues ‘odd’ and surplus fruit and veg directly from farms, sending the perfectly fine fare out in boxes to stop it going to waste; they’ve got a Christmas dinner box fit for a family of six, or consider their weekly/biweekly standard fruit and veg box for the gift that really does keep on giving.
Unsplash © John Fowler
Ten eco-friendly Christmas gift options
Somehow it’s already mid-December and time is running out for Christmas gift ordering. To avoid any last-minute, and usually environmentally (and financially) unsustainable panic purchasing, check out #MaddyEco’s curated list of eco-friendly present options.
If the person you’re buying for is into food but less into food prep, consider a set of three meals from Planthood. All Planthood dishes are chef-made, vegan and ready in ten minutes. They’re also delivered nationwide in 100% compostable and recyclable packaging. Grab a gift card here, and dishes like lasagne al forno with layers of mushroom bolognese, butternut squash and cashew béchamel, and black daal makhani with creamy coconut yoghurt, await.
Our last food-related offering is virtual cooking classes from Always Cook on the Brightside. Resident chef Mia Jacobs guides attendees through the principles of plant-based cooking with wisdom and humour. Sessions tend to be two-hours long and in the past have included bao buns, Korean tacos and buttermilk fried oyster mushroom burgers. Plan your Lockdown 3.0 entertainment in advance and pick up a gift card here.
Joycelyn Longdon, aka Climate in Colour, has been making waves on Instagram with her diverse and accessible climate science and justice content. With her unique combo of academic and artistic talent, she’s taking followers along with her on her PhD in Applying AI to Climate Change at the University of Cambridge. For the climate nerds out there, a subscription to her Patreon – giving access to newsletters, essays, reading packs and podcasts – would make a great present.
Ours to Save, which makes it easier to engage with the climate crisis by harnessing the power of tech and community, is also running a handful of subscription deals. It has an interactive map of global climate action and publishes climate-focused articles, covering everything from the impact of 5G in Shanghai and single-use plastic in Indonesia to Africa’s Green Belt project. For Christmas, O2S is selling limited edition prints (on recycled paper) alongside orders.
If your friend or family member’s passion for climate justice is as ardent as some people’s passion for football, consider getting them an Adapt protest scarf. Adapt makes us design, humour and contemporary culture to spread its message – and has this winter released bold and brilliant scarves in collaboration with EcoKnitware – the only owners of a sustainable ‘Kniterate’ machine in the UK. Just under a quarter of profits also go to ClientEarth.
If you’re after a more subtle sartorial experience, head to Madder Rose for timeless shirts and dresses. Madder Rose clothing is handmade in London from deadstock fabrics (excess leftover from commercial textile manufacturing), and antique materials. The clothes are designed to last a long time and can be composted once no longer needed as they’re made from entirely natural fabrics – primarily linen.
For the most committed environmentalist, how about some green cleaning products? Homethings cleaning tablets are packaged so nicely that I reckon you could get away with giving the Keep It Clean Kit to someone for Christmas. Each kit contains three funky and refillable glass bottles and three effervescent cleaning tabs to make Homethings’ proprietary Allthings, Baththings and Shinythings products.
A similarly practical gift, one that might not be romantic but will sure as hell come in handy – a Ripple Energy gift card. Ripple is the UK’s first ever clean energy ownership platform; it allows households to part-own wind farms, and works in collaboration with Co-op Energy and Octopus Energy. You can buy a gift card to help your loved one on their way to wind-farm co-ownership (and a discounted energy bill) here.
Ecosia’s team of reforestation experts has already planted 110 million trees. And with your input, that could be 115 million. Head to the Ecosia pop-up store to give the unconventional and certainly anti-overconsumption gift of: nature! Trees costs £2 each and can be purchased in bundles of 5, 10, 20 or 40; you can also choose whether their powers are deployed to protect wildlife habitats, tackle hunger, or fight climate change.
