An eco friendly Fireworks Night

Guy Fawkes night is just around the corner and the kids have begun making plans for fireworks and bonfires.

I’ve been wondering whether there’s such a thing as eco friendly fireworks - I found a study from Environmental Protection UK that links the fun from fireworks night, as well as Diwali on 28th October, to a sharp spike in air pollution.

It turns out that fireworks contain a whole load of toxic chemicals, from lead, barium, chromium, even carbon monoxide and dioxins. More worrying though, are the levels of particulates that are released from fireworks and bonfires. Particulates are tiny little particles of soot caused by any kind of combustion, and the smaller they are, the more damage they can do to your body when you inhale them.

In Lewes, East Sussex, where they have their huge famous fireworks display, particulate levels have been found to rocket to a whopping 1800% above EU recommended levels.

But all this pollution is dissipates over the next few days, so is it a bad thing or not? I did a quick Google - the most thorough research there is! - and there only seems to be a handful of people working on green pyrotechnics. Maybe it’s because there are more pressing problems at hand?

In my search, I came across an eco friendly alternative, and this year we’re going to be getting a handful of Chinese lanterns called Wishes in the Sky.

We’ll each write our wishes on the side of a lantern, light the candle and watch them float off into the sky. Tradition says the higher they fly the more likely your wish is to be heard by the heavens.

The bits of the lantern that don’t eventually burn up are all biodegradable, and there’s no banging or crashing to scare the animals. It’s incredible to see a whole load of them drift into the sky at the same time - although there are often reports of UFO sightings when lots are released at once! For every box of lanterns old £2 is donated to Rainforest Concern and the best news of all? We’re getting them on Nigel’s Eco Store very, very soon.

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This entry was written by Nigel and posted on Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 6:39 pm and filed under Good things to do, It ain't easy being green, Co2 emissions, Carbon footprints, Climate change. Bookmark the permalink. You can follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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