Survey casts doubt on whether giving really is better than receiving

As many as one in five Irish people will not even bother unwrapping a gift they receive this Christmas before they pass it on to someone else, according to a survey published this morning.

The piece of research from Repak also indicates that Irish homes will receive nearly 12 million gifts and generate approximately 74,000 tonnes of packaging waste over Christmas .

A surprisingly large amount of those gifts will not be gratefully received.

When asked about the practice of re-gifting, a remarkable 85 per cent admitted to having re-gifted a present at least five times, with 17 per cent saying they even avoided taking the wrapping off gifts to make it easier to pass them on to someone else.

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The survey also highlighted the practice of “self-gifting”, with 66 per cent saying they would also buy presents for themselves while out shopping for others.

Tough

Dads were said to be the most difficult person to buy for, with 39 per cent saying it was tough to buy something good for their fathers.

Repak also released some sobering statistics about the amount of waste that Irish consumers will generate over Christmas this year.

There will be enough plastic exchanged to create over 5.5 billion Lego bricks and enough glass to produce over 89 million beer bottles.

All the cardboard and paper used to pack and wrap presents will weigh the equivalent of one billion Christmas crackers and there will be enough aluminium exchanged to manufacture almost 43 million soft drink cans.

Over 1,000 people were questioned for survey which also found that 93 per cent of consumers believe Irish retailers should recycle properly despite the fact that 50 per cent remained unaware that retailers are legally obliged to do so.