It may be the most wonderful time of the year but the sheer amount of waste that occurs every festive season isn’t exactly bringing joy to the world. According to WRAP (Waste And Resources Action Programme), every year 500 tonnes of Christmas tree lights are thrown out as are 277,000 miles of wrapping paper, 74 million mince pies, 2 million turkeys and 250 tonnes worth of tree. That’s not even half of it!

But that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to drop the festivities and immediately become a Scrooge, far from it! With a little bit of innovation, you can have yourself a merry little Christmas, just with a touch more sustainably. Here are a handful of ideas to keep you rockin’ around the responsibly sourced Christmas tree come December 25th.

Swap The Wrapping Paper For Something Even Cuter

Whilst recycling your used wrapping paper is an incredibly environmentally kind thing to do, getting rid of the stuff completely would be ideal. Trading a potential paper cut infliction for something soft and reusable such as a silk scarf, not only looks fabulous but will be treasured for life (or reused again to wrap your present next year). It’s essentially an extra gift. See our handy GIF for reference of assembly.

Buy a set of three silk scarves from our website, or come into one of our stores to find the perfect pattern yourself.

Ask What They Want

To reduce the fear of seeing your hard sought Christmas present in your local charity shop come New Years, or worse: the bin, have you ever considered asking your chosen recipient what they actually want? Perhaps instead of that kind of cute but totally unnecessary onesie you’ve been eyeing up in a branch of your preferred fast-fashion chain store, they are in dire need of a new sweatshirt after managing to spill red wine all down theirs at the work Christmas party. Think about it.

Shop Vintage And Second Hand

One man’s trash is another one’s treasured Christmas gift! Not only does shopping vintage and secondhand drastically reduces negative impacts on the world around us but the quality of genuine vintage clothing is way better than modern-day high street garb. One pair of brand new jeans uses over 5000 pints of water in the production line, and you don’t need that kind of guilt playing on your mind when there’s delicious food to be eaten and perfect telly to be watched.

Buy Vintage Christmas Jumpers

You’ve probably heard us go on about how vintage is one of the best ways to reduce your environmental impact, but it’s true! And besides, no Christmas is complete without a jazzy jumper. Shop unique throwback styles complete with all the usual trimmings to bring some extra Christmas spirit to your celebration.

Vegan Food Christmas Alternatives

Although meat eaters literally won’t stop going on about pigs in blankets every festive season, raising livestock causes over half of the world’s global emissions and animal farming creates around 18% of all greenhouse gases. Swapping to a nut roast with deliciously seasoned vegetables and a veggie stuffing could warm your stomachs without contributing to global warming.

Sustainable Decorations

Forking out for new tinsel and baubles every year, only for them to be cast away to sit in landfills forever isn’t so jolly. Try opting for something a little kinder like hung pine cones or chains made from recycled paper, even turning your old CDs into baubles. You can even make little gingerbread shapes and attach them to your tree using ribbon!

Gift Vouchers

There’s nothing worse than receiving a present you’d never use, except maybe being the giver of the said gift. Let your loved one choose some goodies for themselves with a gift card, which we have available both online and in store. Waste not, want not.

Cutting Christmas Waste

We live in a society where being 100% waste free is genuinely impossible, but there are a few tricks to making it a little bit better. Cut down on your Christmas waste by donating any leftovers to food banks, downloading the Olio no waste food app and reusing gift bags when possible!

Out With The Old

In the disastrous event of receiving a gift so horrendous and unlike anything you’d ever imagine owning, or maybe your new gift renders an old favourite useless, perhaps you should consider donating elsewhere. Either drop it off at a local charity shop or re-gift to someone who could really need it. And after all, there’s always eBay, Depop, Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree!

Stuck for gifting ideas? Check out our online store and bag yourself or your loved ones the perfect Christmas present from our website. 

 To find out more about the innovation forum, listen to podcasts with people in the industry and to find out more about the Sustainable Apparel Conference, head over to their website: innovation-forum.co.uk

The Organ Donor Price Tag

An initiative by Beyond Retro

Now we want to show that recycling can be much more. That it can not only bring life to old clothing, but also to the people who wear them.

The Organ Donor Price Tag is an initiative together with MOD - More organ donation. All of our price tags in our Stockholm stores will now double as Organ Donor Cards.

Showing the importance of recycling. That it can save lives.

Here’s how a simple price tag can save lives.

1: Tear off the Organ Donor Card from the price tag.
2: Fill it out.
3: Keep it in your wallet (this way medics will know you’re a donor).
4: You’re now a valid organ donor. Thank you!

The price tag is made out of 100% recyclable paper.

But what does organ donation have to do with recycling?

85% of the population in Sweden want to be organ donors. But only 15% actually takes the time to register. We believe that just as an old shirt can get a new life through recycling - a recycled organ can give a person a new life. That’s why we want to make it easier for people in Sweden to become organ donors. And the best way of doing this is using the price tag. Something that’s already attached to the clothes you buy and that follows you home.