Post by account_disabled on Feb 20, 2024 5:13:03 GMT
Christmas is by far one of the most popular and celebrated holidays in many places around the world. It is the time when we consume more food, spend more money and, of course, have fun in the company of family and friends. But while we feast, win and dine in December and January, have you ever wondered what the consequences of this season are for the environment? Is Christmas really that bad? According to Commercial Waste , waste is important and will play a significant role in our future. This does not mean that we should not enjoy Christmas or that we should feel guilty about wrapping gifts for our friends and family, but it does mean that we should try to be responsible. The impact of Christmas food on the environment You could say that overeating is a tradition in itself, but each year we chew and gobble down 370 million meat stews, 250 million beer, 35 million bottles of wine and 10 million turkeys. Cumulatively, this means that during the Christmas season we eat 80% more food than the rest of the year. The downside is that we are producing excess waste and pollution to the point that we are throwing away 230,000 tonnes of food over the Christmas period. That is the equivalent of 74 million meat stews or 2 million turkeys, at a price of approximately 7 billion pesos.
The University of Manchester recently calculated that our Christmas dinners combined produce the same carbon footprint as a single car traveling around the world 6,000 times. Of course, there are financial impacts too, with Europe Cell Phone Number List each household expected to spend at least P4,500 on festive food this year, despite 35% of people admitting they throw away more food at Christmas than any other time. The impact of wrapping paper on the environment As well as food, it's also important to think about the wrapping paper and packaging we buy, use and throw away over the Christmas period. In 2016, we threw away no less than 227,000 miles of wrapping paper. Plus, if we placed all of our Christmas cards next to each other, they would stretch around the world 500 times. And we also spend 4,500 tons of aluminum foil and 125,000 tons of plastic for packaging during the Christmas season. Greenpeace recently discovered that just one kilogram of wrapping paper emits three and a half kilograms of CO2 during its production process, requiring around one and a half kilograms of carbon to fuel its production.
And this does not take into account subsequent packaging and transportation. The true impact of Christmas Are Christmas trees bad for the environment? Many people have brief deliberations about whether to buy fake or real Christmas trees, and this decision has consequences for the environment. Every year we buy around eight million real Christmas trees, with more than five million households opting for artificial trees. Here is a little information about both artificial and real Christmas trees. artificial trees Artificial trees have a carbon footprint equivalent to about 40 kg of greenhouse gas emissions and the main material of artificial trees is plastic; contributing to the problem of plastic pollution around the world. Since artificial Christmas trees are not biodegradable, they are sent to landfills or incinerated, which, again, has a terrible impact on the environment through emissions. Often, artificial trees are produced in South Korea, Taiwan or China, and shipped thousands of miles to reach your home. Real Christmas trees Real Christmas trees grow over a period of seven to ten years and are biodegradable.