If you’re going to go set fire to lanterns and litter the countryside, at least use a lantern that has a sustainable design.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/03/02
By: Nate Maynard
Photo Credit: Reuters/達志影像
Each year, in New Taipei’s Pingxi district, thousands of people celebrate the end of the new year festivities by writing their wishes, hopes, and dreams on little lanterns before sending them up into the heavens. The problem? Your new year dreams become an environmental nightmare when the half-burnt wreckage crashes back to earth.
Praised by the Discovery Channel, tourism blogs, and various branches of Taiwan government the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival is an unsustainable event launching up to 600,000 pieces of garbage into the surrounding mountains. While beautiful in the moment, the resulting waste has angered locals.
The same people who chastise others for littering, failing to sort their garbage, or using disposable chopsticks have no problem launching up a mixture of metal, treated bamboo, and fuel as long as it finally comes to rest out of sight and mind. No reliable information seems to exist on actual impacts, it’s clear that the lanterns can entangle wildlife and they pose a fire risk when the paper does not fully burn.
The paper covering does not readily biodegrade and the metal wirings do not either. Many countries, including Germany, Brazil, Spain and Argentina, have either outright bans on sky lanterns or limit their sales. In Taiwan it’s restricted to certain areas, but perhaps even those special zones require re-thinking. [FULL STORY]
