Wrapping paper, bottles and food in the bin – mountains of waste grow sky-high during the holiday season in Austria.
“Around Christmas and New Year, up to 20 percent more waste is produced than average. Our biggest problem children are the enormous amounts of packaging such as shipping boxes or bottles,” calculates Greenpeace expert Herwig Schuster. He bases this on meticulous calculations and empirical values from the Association of Household Waste Processing Companies. And these speak volumes in every respect.
Eco-misery around the holidays
And this ecological misery around the holidays is perhaps best internalized by looking at the rows of garbage cans lined up. According to this, 34,000 filled containers are coming together more than usual – instead of 340,000, about 370,000 containers are filled to the brim.
Huge CO₂ footprint
Probably the most reprehensible waste product: food! Morals aside, just wasting animal products leaves a huge carbon footprint. In numbers: One kilo of beef produces about 15 kg of CO₂ equivalent – for the same consumption you could travel the distance from Vienna to Berlin and back by train.
Many gifts come back
By the way, Austrians spend around 360 to 400 euros on Christmas gifts every year. The crux – many of the gifts are barely used or returned right after the holiday season. This is catastrophic for the environment: according to a calculation by Greenpeace, 1.4 million returned packages full of new clothing and electronics are destroyed in Austria.
To protect the environment and climate, conservationists come up with moving alternatives, namely giving time – for example by taking a (family) outing by train or taking a walk in the woods.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
