UK's holiday waste smashes all records

Christmas packaging, millions of trees and up to a billion cards are heading to landfill – even though much of it could be recycled By Rachel Shields
Sunday, 28 December 2008 This is a toy story, but it has no happy ending. As millions of households wade through crumpled wrapping, plastic ties and discarded boxes, the sheer weight of refuse in coming days is expected to smash all records. Waste watchdogs warned yesterday that rubbish from the estimated 100 million toys unwrapped last week is likely to burn big holes in the ozone layer as well as in parents’ pockets. … British households generate 20 per cent more waste during the festive period, including one billion Christmas cards, eight million Christmas trees and 83 sq kms of wrapping paper.