Winter holidays can be celebrated with respect for ourselves, our cities and our planet. New Year’s holidays – we celebrate joyfully, but do not forget about nature Climate and environment
During the beloved New Year holidays, we spend a lot of time with family and friends, prepare festive dishes, give each other gifts or go visit loved ones. All this, with minimal effort, can be done with respect for ourselves, our cities and our planet.
Rational use of resources is not only environmental protection, but also new jobs, equal opportunities, affordable health care and education, safety and a decent quality of life for all.
Millions of plastic straws and cups and hundreds of millions of sheets of wrapping paper – it is estimated that a third more of these environmentally harmful products are used during the New Year holidays than on normal days.
Imagine the damage we do to nature as we bid farewell to another year. Some of this waste ends up in the ocean, where eight million tons of plastic are already dumped each year. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) previously prepared recommendations for those who want to celebrate the holidays without harming the environment. These simple rules remain relevant.
Gifts: familiar but toxic
Opinion polls show that very often people receive gifts for the New Year that are completely different from what they wanted. And, alas, they are often simply thrown away… During the Christmas and New Year holidays, the amount of garbage increases sharply: in the USA and Europe, for example, by 25-30 percent.
Of course, it’s nice to receive a gift wrapped in beautiful paper and tied with shiny ribbons. But all this beauty pleases us only for a few minutes, and then turns into trash that pollutes our planet.
Such popular gifts as shower gel, shampoo or other cosmetic substances pose a threat to nature and health due to the surfactants (surfactants) and microplastics they contain.
Unnecessary electrical appliances will cause no less harm to the environment. By the way, think before you buy a new model of smartphone or computer – do you really need them?? Electronic waste pollutes the soil and water, not to mention the wasted resources.
Both practical and environmentally friendly
Gifts can be both pleasant and eco-friendly. Why not give music lovers a ticket to the opera or a concert, or theatergoers a ticket to a play? Use your imagination and make the gift yourself – for example, bath salts or a body scrub, bake a cake, knit a warm scarf. A gift certificate does not necessarily have to be monetary: give your friends a few sewing or ikebana lessons – teach them something interesting that you can do yourself. Take your girlfriend with you to yoga classes or, if you are interested in city history, take her on a tour of her favorite places.
But if you are giving something material (but necessary!), you can make the packaging yourself – you just have to give free rein to your creativity. And if you make Christmas tree decorations together with your children, they will enjoy it much more than a toy bought in a store.
About the Christmas tree and not only
Surprisingly, environmentalists recommend buying a live tree, not a plastic one. Moreover, you need to buy it at official Christmas tree markets, where you can ask for documentation to make sure that it was cut down legally.
The World Wildlife Fund offers several ways to “extend the life of a Christmas tree” – make supports for climbing plants at your dacha from the trimmed branches, and use the needles to make an infusion for a fragrant bath, a hair mask, mattress fillings, or even a cold medicine. You can even decorate a live tree growing in the yard, buy a tree in a pot and then transplant it to your dacha, or make a New Year’s tree from scrap materials. To save energy, don’t forget to turn off the Christmas tree lights when you leave the house and go to bed.
The gifts are in – it’s time to eat
You can and should also approach the preparation of treats responsibly – for example, buy local products: this way you reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Buy products in large quantities at a time to avoid unnecessary packaging and use reusable bags instead of plastic bags.
Calculate the amount of food so that the leftovers do not end up in the trash. Remember that a third of the world’s food is thrown away. Do not rush to throw away unnecessary gifts. There are many sites on the Internet where they can be exchanged, sold or donated to those who really need them.