(Written by DrC at 2012-01-09)
On 22 Jan 2012 hundreds of millions Chinese around the globe will be celebrating the Lunar New Year’s eve where traditionally there will be the compulsory “reunion” dinner. This is a time where family members from all over will congregate together for a few days of merriment.
The author is an ethnic Chinese and despite his forefather having set foot in Malaya about 120 years ago, the tradition that was passed down over 4 generations have not changed. The same goes for many Malaysian who are ethnic Chinese. So the author wants to suggest several answers to the question of: What are the things that or lifestyle modifications that can we do to have less of an impact on the environment so that we can have a green celebration?
The suggestions are mainly in the context of Malaysian Chinese (they also have similar implications to Singaporean Chinese, many of whom would be either joining families in Malaysia or holidaying in Malaysia during the festive season).
1. Transport:
(refers mainly to those having to take land transport back to their respective home towns)
• try not to congest the highway. Follow the travel directive of the various authorities and highway operators.
• try to car pool or take public transport to avoid overloading the highways. In fact single-occupant-driving habit has to be changed, especially during festive seasons.
• if you are driving and if there are alternative trunk roads to your home town, try taking those…it may involves more traffic lights and a lot more “starts & stops” but let’s put it this way, if there is a traffic jam, being near towns and villages it is easy to have pit stops and wait out the jam which you can’t do if you are stuck on the highway. Why should you pay toll and get stuck in the highway under the hot sun while you can drive with less stress on the trunk road? In fact since most of the traffic jams on toll highways in Malaysia during festive seasons are caused by motorists having to queue to pay toll…is it not a bad suggestion for Malaysia to follow some other countries’ practice of “toll-free” for the festive season?
2. Food:
Nice lime fruits....eat them & you may be sick....
• There is a trend of having the reunion dinner of Lunar New Year eve in restaurants among Malaysian Chinese. This has its “green” points as well as “non-green” points. For green points, the “centralized” manner in which dishes are cooked means that less cooking gas etc. will be used compared to each family having to cook for themselves. But there are always too much food ordered and too little time to enjoy these. The author suggests that all such families bring a few tiffin carriers to take home to leftover or more like food that could not be consumed (due to lack of eating time). This is because most restaurants will have 3-sessions of diners for the evening and will serve you all 8 dishes in the set-menu in 10 minutes! In fact the author had suggested to his family (but was flatly rejected by the wife) of doing the take-away style for the food and eat at home with the family and do it the French style…of enjoying the food and company for as long as the party desires. What he could not do, he hopes others could do it! Using plastic bags to pack leftovers will attract many “non-green” points! Again the comfort of dong the take-away style and eating at home would have some “non-green” points too as again less water will be used for the centralized washing of the dishes by the restaurants compared to individual households but this may be debatable if you follow the author’s dish-washing technique.
• Follow the examples of many environmentally sensitive personalities: do not order shark fin soup! There are plenty of other equivalent choices that have the same auspicious meaning in their name as conjured up by the restauranteurs.
3. Drink & beverages:
• Small packet drinks and canned drinks (inclusive of alcoholic and nonalcoholic) are convenient for your guests but the packaging will substantially adds to the amount of waste to be disposed of. Why not make use of small glass or ceramic cups to serve your drinks? Unless your guests are those heavy drinkers, it is usually the case that they will only take a few sips of what you have offered during those “visiting-relatives-occasions” that are the tradition. By offering drinks from large bottles (fizzy drinks or canned drinks) and giving them ice cubes etc, you will save a lot by not having to throw away packets of drinks or cans that have only been sipped a couple of times.
• Get a large ice-box (a large polystyrene box with a good fitting lid will do, but best if you have those specially made cool box) and buy a pack of crushed ice (not tube-ice which melts very fast). You just put your bottle drinks and other stuff (that are water proofed) into this big box with the crushed ice and serve your drinks from there. The lowering of the strain put on your fridge (which in most cases will be full of food etc. and you would have to “eject” non-essential items like packet drinks from it anyway) by constant opening and closing of the fridge door will save you electricity in the long run. A full bag of crushed ice from the commercial van vendor should cost less than RM5.00 and it should do you for at least 24 hours (and the author had done 36 hours last year with his one bag of crushed ice!). When you are done with the melted ice, do not throw the water away…it is great for watering plants of for flushing the toilets!
4. Chinese New Year Greeting Cards & Decoration:
• Chinese New Year cards – these have become more rare as time goes by, but many in the commercial sectors still carry on the traditional practice of sending such cards to their clients. Hence this may not be easy a practice to discourage in the commercial sectors, but individuals do have a choice. Sending e-cards is to be encouraged but do refrain from the old practice of sending a long list of recipients using just one email and if you really need to do so, please put everyone’s email in the “bcc” field and not the usual email address slot: some of your friends value their privacy and you should be careful of that. Never, never send someone a link in an email and ask him/her to pick up the card somewhere…it is like telling your friends that their physical cards are with the bookstore and they should go and get them if they want them!
• You should re-use your decorative stuff as much as possible and if you need to get new ones, make sure these are made of materials that are recyclable. The used red-packets (“Hong Bao”) that are given away to children & unmarried persons as well as old Chinese New Year greeting cards provide great working materials for decoration. Thus you can practice recycling of these used stuff for next year (if you care to save them in the first place).
Twisted Draceana stems & other decorative live plants
Draceana plants sprouted in decorative fashion in pots
• Chinese New Year will not be complete without some auspicious plants in all forms, from the Narcissus, sprouted bulbs, Draceana (twisted) or in pots, etc. etc. to the potted lime plant with lots of fruits there are plenty of choices. But give a thought of what you want to do with these after the festive season is over before you should buy them. For the potted lime plant, it is easy…grow the whole pot on. But be careful not to use those nice looking lime in your drinks or cooking. These have been treated by multitude of agro-chemicals and usually are not fit for consumption! Most decorative and auspicious plants of bulb origin are not going to last long and if you have composting facility already at your garden, they belong there after “use”. How about those twisty Draceana? Unless you are a good gardener, this may end up in the compost bin or as your household waste as well. You can still grow the Draceana in pots on for a while but they do look out of place once all the buds sprouted for the occasion have grown a lot longer. The author suggest that you may think about potting these Draceana up and treat them as houseplants instead of throwing them away.
The above are merely quick observations and simple suggestions from the author. Many of these may have been thought of by the readers already but may not have been put in practice!
The author is using this opportunity to wish all the readers a happy Year of the Dragon!
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