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Christmas
LifestyleFamily & Relationships

Sustainable Christmas: tips on a greener and more eco-friendly festive season from Hong Kong environmentalists

  • Environmentalists young and old share their tips on how to have a more sustainable festive season
  • From a Christmas tree made from washed-up wood to gifting experiences, here’s how some families are going green

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Tips and tricks on how to make Christmas more environmentally friendly – including one from a family who have made their own festive tree and decorations from washed up wood and rubbish, pictured here with 10-year-old Kai Pollard. Photo: Roy Issa
Kylie Knott

The Pollard family know that waste reduction is for life, not just for Christmas.

Jen, Mark and their children Kale’a, 13, Noelani, 12, and 10-year-old Kai live in the small beach village of Shek O, on the south side of Hong Kong Island. They say their drive to adopt a year-round greener lifestyle ramped up last September when Super Typhoon Mangkhut literally spewed waste from the sea into their lives.

“When Mangkhut happened, everyone was on the beach clearing rubbish. There was so much of it,” says Noelani. “It was a wake-up call that got the clean-up movement moving.”

Marine pollution came into sharp focus in the aftermath of Mangkhut, Hong Kong’s most intense storm on record, which lashed the city with winds of up to 285km/h (177mph), triggering storm surges of almost 4m (13 feet) that flooded low-lying areas with waste.

The Pollard family children (clockwise, from top) Kale’a, Noelani and Kai have made their own Christmas tree and decorations from washed up wood and rubbish found on Shek O beach. Photo: Roy Issa
The Pollard family children (clockwise, from top) Kale’a, Noelani and Kai have made their own Christmas tree and decorations from washed up wood and rubbish found on Shek O beach. Photo: Roy Issa
In the days after the storm, the city’s residents rallied together to help clear up the mess, and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department collected about 1,000 tonnes of rubbish a day.

The aftermath of Mangkhut shocked many in Hong Kong into changing their relationship with waste. But at Christmas – traditionally a time of excess – even the most eco-conscious among us might find it hard to cut back.

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