Easter Time!

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 As we officially enter into April, I immediately think of Easter. A few days ago, I noticed that supermarkets have started selling Easter-related goods such as chocolate eggs, plastic eggs, paint sets and confetti. Easter is celebrated by a handful of people in Singapore, and egg painting is often seen as a fun activity for younger children. However, seeing as there is a large amount of consumption associated with this holiday, I am interested in finding out what environmental footprint it leaves behind, if any. Apparently, this article by Independent reveals that excess egg packaging and chocolate production for Easter is problematic and has been heavily criticised by environmentalists. Similar to Valentine's day (which I wrote about earlier), this holiday promotes consumerist behaviour which becomes particularly problematic when there is excessive waste generated. 

Easter eggs (plastic and chocolate) and their packaging are contributing significantly to the problem of plastic pollution. In the UK alone, around 150 million Easter eggs are reportedly sold every year, which is estimated to be roughly 3,000 tonnes of plastic waste (Gabbatiss, 2018). Jo Swinson, former UK Member of Parliament, commented on the wastefulness of bigger luxury chocolate brands such as Lindt and Thorntons in her report titled 'Choc Horror' (Little, 2018). She identified that for their Easter collection, Lindt hollow chocolate eggs only occupied about 14% of the packaging space, while its box made up 36% of its total weight. This signifies a large amount of plastic that is generated as waste, considering one box contains only 1 large egg. 

Lindt Chocolate Egg sold for Easter. 
Source: Express  

Additionally, the size of the chocolate boxes also matters. This is in relation to the transportation of the goods. Thorntons chocolate eggs were found to have large boxes, which means that fewer products could be transported in one trip. A comparison made by Swinson between Thorntons and Green & Black's sizes of packaging revealed that one lorry trip could deliver 8,000 Thorntons eggs, while the same trip could deliver 20,000 Green & Black's eggs containing the same amount of chocolate per box. This means that assuming the above figure of 150 million eggs demanded a year, the difference between Thorntons and Green & Black's eggs adds up to 12,000 lorry trips, or 385 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions (Swinson, 2018). This is on top of the large amounts of greenhouse gas emitted from the chocolate production chain, as I discussed on my earlier post about Valentine's day. Furthermore, plastic eggs and decorations such as confetti, a form of microplastic, are not taken into account for waste generation. These contribute to the pressing problem of plastic pollution, which often ends up polluting the oceans as well. Needless to say, Easter is just one example of a holiday taken advantage of by companies who condone consumerist behaviour and unnecessary purchases. 

References:

Gabbatiss, J. (2018, March 30). Environmental damage caused by Easter eggs revealed. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/easter-egg-environment-damage-packaging-greenhouse-gas-emissions-revealed-chocolate-a8281976.html

Swinson, J. (2018, March). Choc Horror: Excess packaging and plastic waste in Easter Egg packaging in 2018. Jo Swinson. https://www.readkong.com/page/choc-horror-6323410

Little, A. (2018, March 30). Easter egg firms rapped over needless packaging.. choc horror! Express.Co.Uk. https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/939538/Easter-egg-firms-rapped-over-needless-packaging

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