Should I recycle the waste from carbon off-setting?

I’m off on holiday for a week. As part of my new, slightly greener lifestyle, I now carbon off-set when I fly; after-all as I’m using the right methods to get the flight as cheaply as possible I am prepared to do a little towards the environment. Of course, I’m aware carbon offsetting doesn’t really wipe-out the damage done, but it is a step in the right direction; and as I’ve also now eschewed UK flights for filming over the last year instead of the train, I’m at least trying.

This time round though, I felt a little chagrin. I went through the list of companies offering the service, which I list in my Cheap Flight Finding article to find the cheapest (if they’re off-setting the same amount you may as well pay the least) and then paid out. To my surprise three days later I received a large envelope containing a certificate, a letter, and two manufactured luggage tags so I could ‘proudly’ display that I was carbon neutral.

What nonsense! I didn’t do it to wear a badge, I did it to try and help the environment. How much unnecessary paper and manufacturing went into making that stuff, that I’ll never use and never asked for?

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