Wrapping Paper: Staying green without being a Grinch

12/19/21 • 31 min

The holiday season has become synonymous with wrapping paper: all of those beautiful, glittery and bow-laden packages being passed from giver to giftee. But with 227,000 miles of wrapping paper used each year in the UK alone, what is the environmental impact of this particular holiday tradition?
Find out in our special Christmas episode, where we discuss how wrapping paper is made and disposed of, and suggest some festive "greener" alternatives.
References: https://oecd-environment-focus.blog/2019/12/24/what-is-the-environmental-footprint-of-christmas/, https://www.allthingssupplychain.com/the-wrapping-paper-waste-problem-and-what-can-be-done-about-it/, https://www.recyclenow.com/what-to-do-with/wrapping-paper-1

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Previous Episode

Jeans: The dark side of denim

Look down: chances are fairly high that you're wearing a pair of jeans! With 2 billion pairs of jeans manufactured each year, denim is a stylish and comfortable staple of many people's closets. Yet jeans also have a dark side: their production uses enormous quantities of water and synthetic dyes, and raises both environmental and human rights concerns.
Learn more about the impacts of your favorite pair of jeans in this episode with Laura Vicaria from MUD Jeans, the world's first circular denim brand. We'll discuss how jeans are made, their environmental repercussions, and the steps that we can take to ensure our next denim purchase is more sustainable.
Check out MUD Jeans here: https://mudjeans.eu/
Other references: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200710-why-clothes-are-so-hard-to-recycle, https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/jeans-environmental-impact, https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/the-jeans-redesign

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Next Episode

Running Shoes: How to avoid running your shoes straight into the landfilll

Exercising more is often towards the top of our to-do lists, and running shoes are an essential piece of equipment for most forms of fitness. But with 90% of all shoes ending up in landfills or incinerators, how can we reduce the environmental toll of our exercise habits?
Find out in this episode, where we'll discuss how running shoes are made and disposed, what "greener" options are out there, and how we can protect the planet while staying fit.
To learn more:
https://www.sneakerfactory.net/2016/07/running-shoe-made/
https://runrepeat.com/eco-sneakers-research
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2020/mar/21/some-soles-last-1000-years-in-landfill-the-truth-about-the-sneaker-mountain

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