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Princes Street Christmas shoppers are invited to bring and swap items to reduce the resources used to produce and package new goods.

The swap stall is Edinburgh’s third ‘Buy Nothing Day’, which highlights the importance of spending time with friends and family instead of money on Christmas shopping.

Instead of buying new products, people can bring used DVDs, CDs, records, books and videos and exchange them for different ones – all for free! There will also be free gift wrapping provided, along with a display of creative funky ideas for reusing magazines and fabric for Christmas cards and decorations.

Sam Adderley, Waste Prevention Officer at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “We’re here to get people swapping things they don’t need. Why buy stuff new, which uses up enormous amounts of energy and resources to produce, when people have stashes of great stuff they don’t need and are happy to swap. And lets face it – this Christmas especially most of us can’t afford to buy loads of new stuff.”

“The UK produces three million tonnes of waste over the Christmas period, so we’re here to provide a fun, practical alternative to all this rubbish and the unnecessary spending that goes with it. Everyone is welcome to use the stall – even if they don’t have anything to swap they can still still choose one item to take for free.”

There is no charge for using the swap stall. Shoppers can just give what they no longer need, or take what they think would make a good present. Remember: it’s the thought that counts, and thoughts about our environment count even more.

Festive facts

The UK generates around 3million tons of waste over the festive period (Source: DEFRA).
 
It’s estimated that over Christmas as much as 83 square km of wrapping paper will end up in rubbish bins across the UK –this is the equivalent to the area of 638 Hampden Parks.
 
UK households throw away about 1 billion Christmas cards in January, resulting in an extra 20,000 tonnes of rubbish, equivalent to the weight of 20,000 average-sized cars.

ENDS

For media enquiries, please contact:
Per Fischer, Press Office, Friends of the Earth Scotland

T: 0131 243 2719

Notes to editors
The Swap Your Stuff stall, coinciding with the UK Buy Nothing Day, will be held in front of the General Register House, 2 Princes Street, Edinburgh EH1 3YY on Saturday 28 November between 11am and 3pm.

CREW recently released “Badger in Waste Wonderland”, a 5 minute animation showing the impacts of waste:
www.foe-scotland.org.uk/node/261

CREW (Communities Reducing Excess Waste) is Friends of the Earth Scotland’s waste prevention project which aims to reduce waste at the source. It is available for businesses, households and communities across Scotland.
www.reducewaste.org.uk

Friends of the Earth Scotland exists to help people in Scotland look after the planet for everyone’s future. We think globally and act locally in Scotland, delivering solutions to climate change by enabling and empowering people to take both individual and collective action. We offer help to people with the big things in life – helping to sustain a healthy society and environment. We believe that all of our children’s futures will be better because of what we do. www.foe-scotland.org.uk