We tend to think of the end of the year as the close of a cycle, a moment to reflect and weigh up what we’ve experienced, what we’ve loved and what less so, what we can change, keep or improve, and it invites us to think about new resolutions, goals, challenges, objectives — in short, a new opportunity, a “clean slate”. Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve celebrations bring us special moments with our loved ones, delicious meals to prepare, and this end-of-cycle sharing. It’s a time for family, togetherness, celebration and joy. However, the day after these special dates we see — or don’t — how household waste increases by up to 40%, cleaning staff and collection resources are reinforced, hundreds of extra bins are brought in, and we read news stories like the one about 30 tonnes of waste being removed from Puerta del Sol, Madrid, on 1 January 2019. 30 tonnes in just that one square? We don’t know about you, but it makes our hearts sink and shows us a picture completely different from the happiness, contemplation and enjoyment we felt the day before. It shows a clear unawareness of how these celebrations affect our environment and, consequently, ourselves. The start of the year, after a lively, well-celebrated party, reflects the real state of our habits. Public spaces littered with rubbish, overflowing bins, and at home several extra bags of waste with leftover food, drinks and wrapping. All of this on top of gifts that constantly need new batteries, other gifts we already have and get duplicated, wigs, party favours, disposable decorations and a whole lot more — a real feast of instant gratification that will catch up with us sooner rather than later.
And that’s because a celebration of any size — whether music festivals, electronic parties, weddings, birthdays, sporting events or any other kind — generates waste. And as we showed in our blog posts “World Environment Day” and “Plastic Attack”, a lot of this waste has genuinely worrying impacts. If much of the population starts the year with new resolutions and goals, how about adding something related to responsible consumption to our list? Our consumption doesn’t only affect ourselves. Responsible consumption means, above all, avoiding impulsive or unnecessary purchases, finding out about a product’s origin, its composition and how its workers are treated, avoiding single-use items, buying without packaging or with returnable containers and, above all, thinking about the waste and rubbish we generate with just that one product. Every change takes time, learning and patience, and calls for thinking about our surroundings, about others, about the future — but, above all, thinking better. Happy New Year! Happy opportunity!
Sources: https://es-es.facebook.com/zerowastebarcelonanetwork/ https://es-es.facebook.com/pages/category/Nonprofit-Organization/ZERO-WASTE-España-797262323711879/ https://www.ecologistasenaccion.org/?p=11728
