7 tips for a sustainable Easter
With the arrival of the Easter celebrations i to consume, but there are some simple choices we can make during this time to celebrate by lightening our impact on the planet. Here are the tips of the WWF for a Sustainable Easter:
1 – DIY Decorations: no need to buy too many decorations, we can make some with painted eggs, ribbons, paper flowers and other recycled materials. If we don’t have the colors to paint our eggs, let’s remember that they can also be made with food and spices: turmeric for dyeing yellow, paprika for orange, red turnips for fuchsia, coffee for brown, spinach for green, red wine for purple. And above all, let’s not forget to use the inside of the eggs to prepare our traditional recipes with local products.
2 – Local and seasonal products: Choosing zero-kilometer, local and seasonal products not only helps the local economy, severely tested by the current situation, but also the environment, because it reduces the impact of off-season production and transport, which often also weigh on the wallet. This is accompanied by the importance from a nutritional point of view. In fact, nature makes food grow in specific periods to make up for deficiencies that we have to face month after month. During the Easter period, for example, green light for asparagus rich in vitamins and antioxidants, agretti and broad beans.
3 – Shopping consciously: Never before has it been important to shop in a conscious way, not only avoiding unnecessary packaging and excessive purchases, but also with a list in hand to buy only the necessary, reduce waste and trips to the supermarket. Finally, it is important to pay close attention to the expiration dates, so as not to buy that they will perish before their actual use and above all we bring many loose and fresh products to the Easter table, from fruit to vegetables to dairy products, passing through eggs.
4 – What about Easter eggs? For Easter it is important to buy chocolate with the guarantee that it does not come from crops linked to deforestation practices: if possible we choose organic certification for chocolate or certifications that certify compliance with environmental and social sustainability criteria such as Rainforest Alliance, or Fairtrade . To make good chocolate you need good cocoa. And a cocoa is really good if it is produced respecting nature, biodiversity, workers and everyone’s health.
5 – Creatively freezing or reusing leftover food: Freezing food in the freezer is a convenient and simple way to keep a lot of food in good condition for longer, avoiding waste. Freezing is essential when, for example, we want to preserve seasonal products (such as mushrooms) to have them available even in the months when they are not in season, or when you want to stock up. To freeze as much as possible reusable containers (suitable for contact with food and for use in the freezer) instead of bags, sheets and disposables. Let’s remember to note the date and the contents of our containers in order to have a view of the stocks. If we have a lot of leftovers and a full freezer, then green light to creativity: a savory pie like the classic pasqualina, for example, can be cut into cubes, heated and offered again as an aperitif during Easter Monday lunch.
6 – Learn to read labels to avoid waste: food waste, besides being unsustainable from an environmental point of view, represents an economic loss for families. Yet all of this expenditure can be drastically reduced by learning to recognize the difference between the expiration date – “Use by” and therefore no later than that date because it can be risky to your health and “Best to be consumed by”, which means that food will be safe. it will also be consumed after the date shown on the label (as long as the package is intact), but it may not be in optimal conditions. For example, the flavor and texture may not be the best. In addition to the deadlines, we must also remember how important it is to keep food in good condition: in short, if we keep it well, they will give us plenty of time to be consumed.
7- Where do I throw it? Often disposing of typical holiday items and products can be complicated or unknown. For example: not everyone knows that for the packaging of the dove the external box goes into the paper, the internal transparent plastic bag into the plastic, while the cooking mold if it has food residues and is compostable it goes into the organic; if it has food residues and is not compostable it goes to the undifferentiated. There are also the consumed candles, the shells of mussels and clams (unless otherwise indicated in your municipality), the glossy or silver paper of the Easter eggs, the colored paper napkins and the fake corks of wines and sparkling wines .
WWF’s advice tends to both reduce the consumption of disposable materials as much as possible, proposing reusable alternatives (they are in fashion for example i mismatched tableware), both to encourage the purchase of items in bulk or with reduced packaging, avoiding overpackaging. A general rule that applies to plastics, glass and metals is that only packaging is recycled, plastic, glass and metal objects that are not packaging, for example, toys, a glass or a metal rod go undifferentiated. Another important rule is to “reduce the volume” of waste, that is crush the packaging before putting them in the recycling bin. As for the bottles, for example, the lateral surface must be flattened rather than squeezed from the cap towards the bottom, this to facilitate identification during recycling.