Shiny lights and festive meals – but Christmas also has its dark side: an extra meal ends up in the trash. In addition, there is the packaging of the gifts.
Delicious festive meals, Christmas carp, vegetables, fruit – often brought from far away -, delicious cheese, fine sausages, refined desserts and cookies: it can be just a little more, as the saying goes during the holidays. Austrian households produce 4.5 million tons of waste every year. Despite high prices, 16 percent of residual waste comes from food. When we surprise our loved ones with a delicious meal, their eyes are often bigger than their stomachs. If you buy your ingredients with a shopping list, you throw away less.
Carbon footprint for meat products
Greenpeace has calculated that at least one extra meal is thrown away around the holidays. The waste of animal products in particular has a huge carbon footprint. One kilo of beef produces approximately 15 kg of CO2 equivalent: for the same consumption you could travel the distance from Vienna to Berlin and back by train.
According to the Association of Austrian Waste Management Companies, ten to twenty percent more manure is produced around Christmas and New Year. On average, this is an increase of 34,000 full garbage bins per day. Another problem is the enormous amounts of packaging material (shipping boxes, bottles) that end up as residual waste. Every year we spend around 360 to 400 euros on Christmas presents – many gifts are hardly or never used or are returned immediately after the holidays.
This is catastrophic for the environment: according to a calculation by the environmental protection organization, 1.4 million returned packages full of new clothing and electronics will have to be destroyed in Austria alone.
The Nordmann spruce is the most popular tree
More and more often, our living rooms are fully dressed long before Christmas Eve. In Austria, 2.8 million Christmas trees are put up and thrown away after Christmas.
“Christmas should not become a symbol of overflowing bins and wasted resources. Packaging piles up, food ends up unused in the trash and gifts disappear in the returns frenzy. Behind all this is a burden on our environment that we can all avoid together,” explains Stefan Stadler, spokesperson for Greenpeace.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
