Valentine's Day - Carbon Footprint
Avoid the Cut Flowers
TerraPass: February 10, 2009
An easy way to cut your footprint this Valentine’s Day
If you can possibly get away with it, avoid buying and giving cut flowers — unless they’re from your own garden. If you can’t get away with it, look for locally grown flowers that are in season. This almost certainly means no roses.
How this helps
More tips & guides @ TerraPass blog, including:
Salon’s Ask Pablo investigates the footprint of cut flowers
Should I buy flowers for Valentine's Day? Don't they bring environmental woe?
By Pablo Päster
The US imports between 60 and 80 % of its cut flowers
~ Most from greenhouses in Latin America, or even as far away as Africa or Europe
~ Up to 90 % of the roses sold for Valentine's Day are from Colombia and Ecuador
~ ~ in 2006, the wholesale value of imported roses was over $300 million
Air Freight - order plus packaging weighs 2 pounds = 6 pounds+ of greenhouse gases
And flowers may be doused in chemicals to ward off pest
~ USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service does not test for biocide residue
~ ~ in Colombia, flower-plantation workers are exposed to 127 types of pesticides, the Sierra Club tells us, and flower farms have polluted and depleted Bogota's streams and groundwater.
READ MORE
Avoid the Cut Flowers
TerraPass: February 10, 2009
An easy way to cut your footprint this Valentine’s Day
If you can possibly get away with it, avoid buying and giving cut flowers — unless they’re from your own garden. If you can’t get away with it, look for locally grown flowers that are in season. This almost certainly means no roses.
How this helps
There’s plenty to love about cut flowers, but the story behind the dozen roses is often far from pretty. Heated greenhouses, pesticides and transportation often contribute to the heavy environmental footprint of the Valentine’s Day bouquet.
More tips & guides @ TerraPass blog, including:
Salon’s Ask Pablo investigates the footprint of cut flowers
Should I buy flowers for Valentine's Day? Don't they bring environmental woe?
By Pablo Päster
The US imports between 60 and 80 % of its cut flowers
~ Most from greenhouses in Latin America, or even as far away as Africa or Europe
~ Up to 90 % of the roses sold for Valentine's Day are from Colombia and Ecuador
~ ~ in 2006, the wholesale value of imported roses was over $300 million
Air Freight - order plus packaging weighs 2 pounds = 6 pounds+ of greenhouse gases
And flowers may be doused in chemicals to ward off pest
~ USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service does not test for biocide residue
~ ~ in Colombia, flower-plantation workers are exposed to 127 types of pesticides, the Sierra Club tells us, and flower farms have polluted and depleted Bogota's streams and groundwater.
READ MORE
1 comment:
This is good to know. We don't think about these things when we receive our dozen red roses.
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