Solid as a Roc
Eccentric millionaire gives kids rubbish from street wrapped in newspaper in bid to save planet
MILLIONAIRE land owner Roc Sandford is giving his children a rubbish Christmas – to teach them about the future of our planet.
For presents, he gave his two daughters bits of junk he’d found in the street – wrapped in Christmas paper.
We admire Roc’s commitment but hopefully Santa will still be dishing out the goodies to Record readers – and their kids – on the big day.
THE MILLIONAIRE laird of a Scots island has given his daughters unique Christmas presents this year... rubbish wrapped in old newspaper.
Avid environmentalist Roc Sandford, 61, who owns the Inner Hebridean isle of Gometra, even turned off his heating to save energy and wanted his family to eat food left over from local markets.
He is on a mission to decarbonise Christmas to help save the planet.
Roc divides his time between Gometra and London and as his daughters Savannah, 20, and Blue, 17, are spending Christmas Day with their mum, they celebrated early with their dad.
The unusual presents were handed over to the girls at an early Christmas lunch at Roc’s city home.
He said: “We couldn’t stop laughing when they opened my presents – pieces from the ‘salon de refuse’ , which is what I call my museum of lovely bits of rubbish I’ve found in the street, wrapped up in old newspaper.”
He added: “Our Christmas lunch was incredibly delicious. It was vegan and mainly local food, like sprouts and potatoes and carrots, because meat and dairy and stuff flown in from abroad, like avocados, have high embodied carbon. “We also had mulled water. “We wanted it to be freegan – where you go along after the markets have closed and pick through the rubbish for veg before it goes in the garbage truck – but no one had time so we bought it.”
The family ditched dining at the table to eat huddled round a low-energy fire on the floor, hugging hot water bottles for warmth. Roc said: “We’ve already given up our car and flying. That was years ago.
“Now the gas central heating is off all the time and the room temperature has gone down to eight degrees. It’s just like being on Gometra. We use a small electric fire instead. It’s 800w, which is the same heat as about 10 of the old lightbulbs. We wear quilted boiler suits and if it’s really cold, slip a hot water bottle inside.
“It’s all learning – I’m in no way perfect and I’ve got miles to go.
“The more you can kick the habit of fossil fuels, the clearer you can see their embodied horror – millions of agonising deaths, billions of agonising lives, real humans, real children –and amongst them your own family.”