Cut the Crap has landed at its next location, Questors Theatre for December 2024 until first week of January 2025. Cut the Crap is the eye-opening and inspiring pop-up ActForEaling exhibition centred on reducing waste, that is touring the Ealing borough. This highlights how we can Cut the Crap at Christmas the huge damage waste does to our environment, nature, wildlife and us. It gives us solutions on how to reduce our waste and look after our precious resources better.
So the exhibition will be on display at The Questors Theatre in their foyer for December. Theres plenty to do there with a cafe, the lively Grapevine bar and pantos plays to see. So pop in and have a look at Cut the Crap and sign up for one of our pledges. The Questors Theatre is at 12 Mattock Lane, Ealing W5 5BQ. The Theatre is open every day, please see Opening Times. The theatre is one of the largest community theatres in Europe.
Cut the crap at Christmas
At Christmas, we have to be careful in not going over the top in our celebrations. As much of what we do at this time of year, actually harms the world, such as over consumption, pollution and waste. Even the most environmentally conscientious can be challenged by how to have a sustainable Christmas. Here are some suggestions for a sustainable Christmas.
Wrapping Presents
Up to 109km2 of Christmas wrapping paper could end up in the waste bin – that’s 38 times the area of the City of London, What a Christmas Waste
Swap paper for fabric. Try using a gift as part of the wrapping, e.g. a tea towel, a scarf or a tote bag. Use Fabric squares such as scarfs or napkins or make your own and use the Japanese traditional wrapping technique of furoshiki. You can get started with the Ealing Repair cafe guide to fabric fabric bags and wraps.
Wrapping with paper: If you want to use paper, be creative in making your own wrapping paper, using newspaper, brown or plain paper. You can decorate the paper using stencils, rubber stamps or potato prints. Fasten with raffia, garden string or wools. Brown paper sticky tape is a sustainable alternative to plastic sellotape.
If you choose to buy wrapping paper avoid metalic, glitter, sequins as they are plastic and making it non-recyclable. Do the scrunch test for what if you can recycle the wrapping paper. Also look for the FSC mark that guarantees paper/card is supporting sustainable forestry, and the ‘recycle me’ logo.
Presents
Around 104,946 tonnes of plastic packaging are likely to end up burnt, in landfill, or exported overseas over the festive period. This equivalent to the weight of more than 1000 blue whales or 218,00 polar bears What a Christmas waste.
Rather than buying new and adding to the waste, choose preloved (secondhand) items. Or gifting experiences, such as a trip to the theatre or a restaurant. For pre-loved items, charity and vintage shops are great places to find great gifts and will save you a bit of cash. Or you can buy from eco conscious organisations. Such as EarthBits.com, The Natural Collection or Ethical Superstore to name a few of our favorites. Look at Good on you for sustainable and ethical clothing and beauty brands. Another place to is buy presents and cards from are organisations which help to protect nature such as the WWF: World Wildlife Fund, RSPB and the Woodland Trust.
Decorations
Use family decorations of previous years. Its like getting bringing old friends out and remembering happy times. If you want to freshen up your decorations, create your own from natural or recycled materials. Do not be tempted to use buy decorations that are only designed to be used one or wasteful of energy.
Christmas Food
Christmas is pricey at the best of times, but with our budgets tightening this year, many of us are thinking about how to make savings for the festive season. No-one wants to be caught short of ingredients or snacks during the festive season because of a shopping mishap. Which revealed in 2022 what we overbuy the most of at Christmas. The top 5 items in order were Cheese, Biscuits, Chocolate, Alcohol, Vegetables, Mince pies. So with a bit of planning there is no need for food to go to waste.
Get the Ultimate Guide to Christmas food planning from Love Food Hate Waste which has some brilliant ideas to stop food waste. Remember, shops only close for two days over Christmas holiday so theres no need to have overflowing store cupboards. There is lots of creative ways of using leftovers, see ActFor Ealing Inspiration for Christmas leftovers.
Cut the crap at Christmas
So pop along to The Questors Theatre to be inspired. There are more facts and suggestions for how we can reduce waste in Ealing and reasons why we need to reduce our waste.
The theatre is at 12 Mattock Lane, Ealing W5 5BQ. The Theatre is open every day, please see Opening Times.