It’s never too early to start thinking about Christmas and it seems that social media sites have posts already dedicated towards the festive season but not all of them are all that jolly.
The posts in question, most specifically on Facebook and Twitter, are regarding the nations beloved Christmas crackers – one of the things probably most arguably associated with Christmas itself.
There’s so much excitement surrounding the pulling of crackers: who do you choose as your partner to pull the cracker with you? What colour paper crown did you receive? What does your joke say? And most importantly: what toy did you get? The plastic comb that would get lost in anyone’s hair? The plastic leaping frog that gets lost somewhere after the first launch? The plastic paper clip that no one ever ends up using? The plastic fish that can somehow read your emotions? Plastic, plastic and more plastic.
The joy of pulling a cracker lasts all but 20 seconds and then what? All of that plastic is piled up at the end of the table and later put in the bin, all to end up at landfill sites and then eventually polluting our oceans.
A tweet from @bobthe_dolphin read: “Please join me in boycotting Xmas crackers this year. 154,000,000 pieces of plastic crap will end up in our landfill or in our oceans in the UK alone…”. Many other posts like this have emerged over time too.
For us, Christmas crackers only last for a couple of moments but in our ocean, they last up to 500 years in the ocean before discompose.
In 2019, you’d think that people would be more aware of our contribution to destroying our planet but people don’t like to budge from their old ways. The perfect example of this is through the responses to this post published by Alexa on gransnet.com. One user wrote “You can [boycott] if you like Alexa, but I will be buying Christmas crackers as per usual”. Another wrote: “I agree about all the plastic junk, but it’s just part of the festivities…I’m not forgetting them”.
However, one response posed an innovative idea about making your own crackers. It read: “Make your own. My daughters are now 42 and 45 and since we saw it on Blue Peter many years ago as a family, and now both daughters, have always made them. Presents can be more individual to the person, materials for the actual crackers are up to you but can easily be previously used materials. Cracker snaps are easily purchased on the internet and children really enjoy making them, perhaps choosing a special present for mummy or daddy.”
It’s time that big UK retailers banned the use of plastic Christmas crackers (and did more to reduce the use of single use plastic in general). There is no doubt that this would cause that 154 million figure to drop considerably, perhaps stocking crackers with chocolates on the inside instead. This would make a great alternative for people who don’t have the time or just don’t fancy making their own personalised crackers like suggested.
A young teenager named Alexander started a petition for exactly this on Change.org. He said: “I am 13 years old and I love crackers at Christmas. We all have a great time pulling them at the end of lunch and then the table is left with a pile of plastic that nobody actual wants! Along with the wrapping and ribbons and the cracker pully bit it all goes straight in the bin and yet more plastic ends up in the ocean or landfill. Please stop selling them in the shops so they stop making them!”
Personally, I think crackers are an essential part of Christmas. They have been growing up through my childhood and when I have children I’d like for it to be a part of theirs, but not at expense of the planet. Too often I see comments on social media saying “I’m just one person out of 7 billion, I won’t make a difference” and we won’t make a difference if all 7 billion of us hold this mindset. Every little step helps and after seeing that shocking statistic it’s enough to deter me from using plastic crackers. The fun and magic of Christmas isn’t determined by what pointless plastic toy lies within a cracker.
The average Brit will pull 3 Christmas crackers each this year, so when you hear that snap of your cracker this Christmas, think about how not-so-merry all the sea life will be and landfill sites will look when there is the easy alternative of making your own environmentally friendly cracker. I know what I’ll be doing.
Be the first to comment on "Boycott the Christmas crackers!"