The nightmare after Christmas

Holidays, good food, pleasant guests, inspiring conversations and presents – Christmas can be great. But in the age of mass consumption and marketing it is also a stressful event for people and even deadly for many animals. Peace begins at our plate. But as we know, millions of animals such as geese, pigs and turkeys are killed for a Christmas meal after a horrible life in small cages where they have never seen the daylight, moved there body or spread there wings.

Consumers can make a difference. Every decision that we make, each thing that we buy has an impact; from the production over usage up to the dumping. And soon after Christmas the big clean up starts. Many presents can’t be returned and end up in the trash together with lots of disposable plastic. While only a small percentage of plastic is going to be recyled, most of the plastic ends up in the ocean. Every single second, an entire truckload of plastic is thrown into the sea. This is happening because consumers often don’t make the connection between their choices and the impact of the products on the environment. Please check out the Greenpeace clip.

The good news is that we can still change things and act more environmental friendly.  It is possible to ban disposable plastic out of our every day life step by step. If you want to know more about that, you can check out the Finnish documentary Recipes for Disaster by John Webster that features a family that tries to avoid any products made of oil. It sounds incredible but it can be possible.

Photo: © Janusz Klosowski  / PIXELIO