Showing posts with label Christmas gift. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas gift. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Under the Christmas tree good practises handbooks


by Silvia Musso

Are you too struggling with Christmas? It would be for the crisis or for the worries for future austere times, but this year you can find useful suggestions everywhere “to celebrate” in a sustainable way. Many more or less big, more or less known associations and organizations as well as municipalities or firms are listing decalogues of good practises that with zero Km dinner, green gifts and environmental friendly decorations will help us to overcome also this Christmas. Greenpeace suggests for the Christmas tree to use prunes, instead of buying a real one, to buy low consume lights, to use less meat for the dinner and about the fish to avoid cod, prawns, tuna and swordfish choosing bluefish.

Always about the menù a reflection and a anti-waste vademecum comes from Andid, the association of Italian dietists. «Since always – president of Andid, Giovanna Cecchetto, explains – Christams times are the occasion to share refined dishes where food becomes the symbol of abundance, pleasure, thoughlessness, hope of a fuure well-being. But differently from now, those food were used to last also after Christmas and were sipped during the following weeks with the “recycle” practise. Today it is not like this any more. We throw away all».

According some data collected by United Nations, in fact, every year one third of food producted on Earth, about 1,3 billions tons, is wasted. To contain and avoid these wastes Andid dietits have listed 10 suggestions. Among them: “Do not get hungry at the dinner time”; “to respect satiety signs”; “to avoid bread”; to buy a correct quantity of food, proportioned with the numbers of people”; do not being groped by sales and to limit too big food supplies”.

Coldiretti's suggestion, over the invitation to choose zero Km food, is about the Christma tree. It is better to opt for the real fir because often the plastic ones come from China and have done thousands of km with many greenhouse gases emissions. Moreover the firm can be replanted after the festivity, or disposed in les time than the plastic one tht needs 200 years befor the complete degrade. In Italy the firs' cultivation to be allocated to Christmas market is part of hydrogeological risk prevention projects.

About the holydays, finally, WWF, in its yearly decalogue, suggests to prefere Italy rather to far destinations and the train rather than areoplane.

Other decalogues, very similar ones to the others, come also from websites of municipalities, businnesses and reviews.

The ideas to spend a sustainable Christmas are many, we have to decide if let them a real practise. Anyway if you are still looking for a gift, under the Christamas tree, try to put one of these handbooks. It will be a good present for the future of or Planet and an occasin to rflect together with frineds and relatives among candies and wine.
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Friday, December 16, 2011

Eco-friendly tips for Christmas



by Annalisa Tancredi

This year the Christmas tree is made of recycled cardboard and decorated by fairy lights and reused ornaments, because producing a plastic one emits more than 23 kilograms of CO2 and it’s biodegradable in more than 200 years; at that moment, Santa Claus' beard will be too long and it is better to be eco-good with him if we wish to receive any Christmas gift, obviously ecological and packaging-free.

The best practices for an eco-friendly Christmas lunch are: cooking slowly and in a simple way, with fresh foods, avoiding precooked and frozen foods; be careful with food wastage because 1/3 of it ends up in trash tripling the amount of waste disposed during the holidays. You have to be very patient to cook handicraft polenta and traditional lentils (which could be greener if cooked without sausage, usually excessively packed). Reducing meat consumption is also good for health and the environment, because producing it emits much CO2 and half of it is generally trashed. The same about fish, don’t buy it if not local. Do not buy exotic fruits, otherwise prefer kiwi, persimmons, mandarins and made in Italy dried fruit. Prefer seasonable and biological vegetables, better if bought by GAS (Purchase Solidarity Group).

Let’s take a look to sustainable Christmas events: Legambiente Young Energy Liguria will organize on Saturday, December 17, a Christmas dinner with dance and music to present the Ligurian Purchase Solar Group to those citizens interested in installing a photovoltaic or solar plant. The initiative is promoted by Legambiente Liguria and the Genoa Municipality and it’s part of the measures envisaged by the SEAP (Sustainable Energy Action Plan) of the Covenant of Mayors. "We organized a series of public meetings, issued to all concerned citizens in collaboration with the Municipalities - said Stefania Pesce of Legambiente - We are collecting subscriptions for reaching the minimum needed number of participant.". The advantages are discernible not only about prices but also about higher guarantees, higher plants’ quality and transparency (competitive tenders are open to all businesses).

The City of Corchiano
instead, winner of Five Stars Municipalities Award 2010 and City for Green Award 2011, organized on Sunday, December 11 a Christmas event dedicated to the ecological footprint, the rediscovery of ancient tastes and jobs. Christmas decorations and illuminations are obtained from the reusing of iron and plastic bottles. In addition, it’s possible to taste biologic red wine and the typical cake made with raisins and local craft beer, along a path to the rediscovery of medieval jobs.


Chistmas is welcome to Mother Nature only if eco-friendly!
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