Celebrations & Festivities
Table of Contents
Introduction
Celebration is a common theme and experience all over the world. It can be a time of joy and togetherness, but celebrations can also come at a high ecological cost, especially when we aren't particularly thoughtful about the consequences of the often higher-than-normal amount of consumption and waste that generally comes with celebrations, parties, festivals, parades, etc.
By making small changes to our mind sets and customs surrounding celebrations, we can make a lasting difference for generations to come. Some of these upgrades might include:
Quick Guide to Eco-Friendly Celebrations
Gift Giving
Consider giving experiences instead of items
Try to only give things the person genuinely needs and/or has asked for.
Try to give used, refurbished, or recycled gifts if giving physical items. Your book nerd might prefer old over new books. Your hippy friend might prefer recycled or organically grown items over virgin materials. Try giving recycled sari yarn or banana silk to your favorite crafter.
Gift Wrapping
Invest in or make your own reusable/washable gift bags, instead of buying single-use wrapping paper which is almost never recycled.
Reuse ribbons, lace, or string instead of using tape which is made from plastic, but can't be recycled.
Food
Plants-based foods have less impact than animal products so offering mostly plant-based dishes will help cut your impact on water, land, forests, and global emissions.
Coffee, chocolate, sugar, and oil also cause a large amount of deforestation and other ecological problems, so using less, or finding alternatives will also help reduce your impact.
Plan meals based on how many people will come and physically be able to eat the food available. Each year we have a relative who insists on buying a whole turkey, a pork roast and beef for our small family gatherings, and every. Single. Year she is surprised and upset that the family is unable to eat all the meat before it spoils. A better strategy would be to consider how many people are expected, and multiply this number by the suggested dietary recommendation, plus a small amount for people to have seconds or left overs. If there are unexpected amount of left overs, you can also ask neighbors, relatives, friend, or shelters if they would like some of the food.
Christmas
Invest in a reusable advent calendar, instead of buying the single-use plastic and cardboard type that has become popular. These can be filled with little sweets, toys, stickers, or other gifts like teabags depending on the age or interests of the person who will be opening the calendar. Reusable calendars can be made from wood, cardboard, fabrics such as felt, or even magnetic tins on your fridge.
Decorations
Reusable decorations like those generally used for yearly celebrations are less environmentally damaging than decorations that are used just once and thrown away. If you don't want to keep or store decorations year round, remember that people may be happy to find them at your local donations shop, but renting can also be a good way to reduce your impact if you need extra tables, chairs, serving ware, etc. but don't expect to reuse these items.
Glitter
Jokingly referred to as "the STD of crafts", is generally made of plastic, and can get EVERYWHERE. This means every time we use or buy something with glitter, microplastics will be tracked around on shoes, even getting into the soil outside. Some glitters are now made of metal or other safer materials, but in general, glitter is best avoided.
Balloons
Pollution Risk
Balloons are particularly dangerous to wildlife, so NEVER release them into the sky, and always tie them to a child's wrist or their push chair instead of letting them hold it without aid. Balloons strangle, suffocate, and block the digestive systems of wildlife, and they are one of the hardest types of pollution to safely reach and remove during community or river cleanups.
Safe Disposal
Recycling facilities do not accept balloons nor their components. All balloons should be popped then thrown into landfill waste. Latex balloons may be recyclable, but the strings are generally plastic-based.
Helium - Throwing Away a Highly Valuable, Non-Renewable Gas
Helium is a limited resources found in chasms underground, created by nuclear reactions inside out planet. Due to reduction of production, shipping issues, and now the war in the Ukraine, helium is becoming increasingly scarce, which has doctors and weather specialists becoming increasingly concerned about how to keep people safe and healthy.
Alternatives to Balloons & Other Plastic Decorations
Bunting
Bunting has been used for a long time, but fell out of use as less eco-friendly alternatives gained popularity. Instead of using plastic wreaths or tinsel, consider upcycling some old textiles into custom bunting, or buy some from a local crafter or shop. Bunting can be made with paper, but fabric will generally be more sturdy, and can be washed for reuse year after year. You can have the bunting pieces specifically attached to the ribbon or string they are on, or you can have them unsewn, so you can slide different colour combinations onto the rope or string for different holidays.
Bunting pieces can be cut from fabric, knitted, crocheted, or even just be strips of fabric ties to a rope, ribbon, bias tape, or string.
Crocheted
Knitted
Paper Bunting: Upcycle old Book or Festive Cards!
This isn't a very eco-friendly option if you are using new materials, but can be a good way to recycle old items like wrapping paper from pervious celebrations, old magazines, or damaged children's books.
This would be a cute project if a Library is forced to get rid of old, damaged books, specifically because the damaged potions can be left out, preserving the better images that would otherwise be lost.
Rag Bunting
Rag bunting has the potential to be the most eco-friendly type of bunting, if made from unwanted scraps from sewing projects, or rescued from clothing or other textiles that were going to be thrown out.
Sewn Fabric Bunting
The video below shows newly bought fabric being cut and sewn with biase tape. You can make your pieces and shape or size, any order or colour combination. If you use old clothes, bedding, curtains, etc. then the impact of any mistakes will be less than with newly made/bought supplies.
Outdoor Lighting
This can look really pretty, but it is adding to the growing light pollution problem that is damaging human health and eco systems around the world.
If you use outdoor lighting to celebrate, the following choices can lower your impact:
Never use flood lights or laser lights as these are particularly overwhelming to nocturnal wildlife.
Use a timer so that lights only come on during hours when people are most likely to see them, perhaps from sundown till 8 or 10 pm. This avoids leaving on lights when the majority of people are in bed.
Limit lighting to walkways or other places that see a lot of traffic. This increases the chance that lights will be useful, instead of lighting places that mostly wildlife, but few to zero humans need to move through.
Pick wildlife-friendly light colours to disrupt their natural behaviors as little as possible.
Click the Darkness (for Wildlife) and Light Pollution buttons to understand how to reduce the impact of light on people and the planet.
Food
Food generally has the biggest ecological impact, especially meat and animal products. Oils, coffee, chocolate, and sugar also have a big impact on deforestation (after animal products like beef), so picking some earth friendly foods for people to choose can make for a much more planet-friendly party.
High Impact Foods
Proteins
Steak
Lamb
Shark Fin Soup (or anything with Shark meat)
Pork
Chicken
Fish, Shrimp, Crab, Lobster & Other Sea Animals
Birds Nest Soup
Finger Foods
Sushi with Salmon, Eel, Roe, Crab, or other animal products.
Deviled Eggs
Stuffed Mushrooms with Meat
Cakes
Chocolate Cake
Tres Leches Cake
Deserts
Dairy-Based Ice cream - cow, goat, etc.
Dairy-Based Flan
Medium Impact Foods
Proteins
Dairy Products like Cheese
Egg Dishes such as Quiche
Insect Meat: Silk Worms, Locusts, Crickets, etc.
Finger Foods
Plant-Based Sushi (rice uses a lot of water and generally produces methane)
Cakes
Tiramisu
Coffee Cake
Deserts
Plant-Based Ice Creams including soy, almond, cashews
Plant-Based Flan including soy, almonds, oats, etc.
Low Impact Foods
Proteins
Bean Chili
Edamame (with or without Shells)
Plant-Based Meats (Beyond, Impossible, Incogmeato, etc.)
Green Beans
Finger Foods
Deviled Potatoes
Stuffed Mushrooms with Plant-Based Filling
Cakes
Carrot Cake
Deserts
Plant-Based Ice Creams including oat, hemp, banana, aquafaba.
Fruits
Gifts
Gift Wrapping
Wrapping and opening gifts is a big part of many celebrations. Unfortunately single use packaging is a major source of celebration-caused pollution, but it's one of the easiest to fix!
Click the Gift Wrapping button to learn more about reusable options such as tins, washable/fabric gift bags, and the Japanese art of gift wrapping with pieces of fabric.
Destructive Traditions
Balloon Releases
The following are listed by importance and likelihood of each problem with the most statistically likely and serious problems listed first.
Waste of Precious Helium
Balloons use helium, which is vital for running certain medical devices and other important equipment that keeps society running. Unfortunately it is a non-renewable resource which is quickly running out.
Plastic Pollution Kills Wildlife
Balloons can go thousands of miles and often ends up in trees, bushes, waterways, and other very hard-to reach locations. The corpses of animals including fish, birds, turtles, and wales have all been found entangled, strangled, suffocated, or with their digestive tracts blocked by balloons and/or balloon strings.
Fire Risk & Power Outages
Foil balloons can also interfere with power lines and other important infrastructure. They cause sudden power surges which in turn leads to explosions, fires, and shut down a community's electric grid.
Live Bird Releases
These are traditional in some Asian cultures, but have spread around the world as people emigrate or as people from other cultures borrow the idea. The idea of releasing birds into the wild might sound nice, but these are generally poached from countries where they are at risk of extinction from over-harvest (many die from the stress of being captured or even more die while being transported). When they are released in new places, they either die from starvation or from weather extremes that they have not evolved to survive. If they do survive then they start to compete with local species who might be endangered already from climate chance, food scarcity, habitat loss, and other causes, further pushing those native bird species closer to extinction.
Gender Reveals
This is a new and strange "tradition" with a number of problems both social and environmental.
One couple contaminated an entire city's drinking water, by dumping dye into a waterfall. Even worse was that this important tourist attraction was already suffering from the effects of drought.
Other couples have been charged with manslaughter after explosives killed people attending their gender reveal parties including the couple who killed a grandma with a home-made pipe bomb or others who started a massive wildfire from using a smoke bomb.
Several plane crashes have also been caused by gender reveals.
Fireworks
These release toxic air pollutants, greenhouse gases, heavy metals, and pollutants including plastic which affect our soil, drinking water, even making their way into our crops, cows milk, and human breast milk.
Noise pollution from fireworks hurts wildlife, pets, livestock, and people, especially those with PTSD and autism.
Click the Fireworks button to learn more about the dangers of fireworks, and better alternatives.
Paper Lantern Releases
These have started some very serious wild fires.
An equally pretty, but less destructive alternative would be floating tealight candles. You can use real candles, or small battery-powered lights that float, and set them in a bowl, swimming pool, or fish pond. A lake might also be acceptable, but only if someone has the equipment and safety experience/equipment to go and retrieve the lights after the celebration such a paddle boat, life vest, and net.
Candles can sit directly on the surface of the water, or be set on decorative candle holders. Some really pretty examples include flower-shaped candles or holders that look like flowers.
You can even make your own floating candles with found supplies like locally collected acorn shells plus wax from a candle you already own.
Another less-mobile alternative could be luminaries, which can be made from paper bags (preferably with batterie tealights instead of candles), metal or even ice!
