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It’s marriage ceremony season and the time to make merry. Weddings contain a number of planning and a spotlight to element. Within the age of occasion planners, each side is taken care of to the T. These huge, fats Indian weddings are a number of enjoyable for the visitors and the households organising it.
Sadly, the marriage venues are strewn with paper cups, plastic bottles and waste after the festivities are over. This waste, together with the opposite moist waste, goes to the landfills. As weddings get bigger, so does the wastage.
An article in Floor report states that a median Indian marriage ceremony generates round 200-300 kg of meals waste, which is sort of 20 % of the meals cooked. Cumulatively, it quantities to $14 billion value of meals.
Folks have slowly began shifting to eco-friendly weddings the place they think about the environmental value and footprint. From utilizing 19-year-old butter paper for packing to going fully plastic-free and composting/recycling all of the waste produced at weddings, {couples} are going the additional mile to avoid wasting the planet.
Listed below are some methods so that you can plan a sustainable marriage ceremony, with out compromising on the enjoyable or grandeur:
- Ditch the paper invite
Step one in any marriage ceremony planning is the invitation. Many {couples} are selecting to fully go digital.They simply ship invitations via Whatsapp or personally invite their family and friends.
If you happen to should do some printed ones for the older kin, go for seed paper invites which then develop into vegetation.
Madhuri Balodi and Aditya Aggarwal’s invite requested folks to return to the marriage utilizing public transport, cycle or electrical automobiles (EV)s. In addition they requested visitors to carry vegetation as an alternative of flowers.
Different {couples} are additionally encouraging visitors to keep away from any plastic packaging for the presents and a few even ask visitors to contribute to environmental organisations of their selection.
- Let your Baraat be electrical
Grooms normally arrive on horseback or automotive, and these baraats many a occasions, are strewn with glasses used to drink alcohol or flowers. To scale back the carbon footprint, Aditya arrived for his marriage ceremony on an e-bike, whereas his mates cycled to the marriage.
In spite of everything, a sustainable marriage ceremony begins proper from the entry. The 30-35 baraatis got here on cycles or rented e-bikes.
Like him, Ashwin Malwade arrived for his marriage ceremony in an electrical automotive too.
Some organisations are additionally selecting up and recycling the waste that baraats generate.
- Go for minimal, reusable decor
Make the decorations a enjoyable course of by involving your folks and unleashing your creativity. Use outdated cardboards and papers to create the decor of your selection.
Prashin Jagger and Deepa Kamath painted welcome boards utilizing an outdated cardboard field, which regarded enticing. In addition they had their mates make hand-made posters utilizing outdated papers and cardboards to elucidate their intention.
“In truth, the primary welcome board with our names was additionally made out of a cardboard field of an LED TV bought by a buddy. With some pens and colors, he turned the board into one thing particular inscribing our names–and it was stunning,” Deepa added.
It’s also possible to adorn utilizing newspapers and outdated glass bottles. Attempt to make sure that the decorations don’t have plastic and use few native, seasonal flowers. You should use vibrant garments to brighten.
- Lease cutlery/ Use banana leaves
The largest contributor to marriage ceremony waste is unquestionably meals. To serve meals, one wants various kinds of cups, spoons, forks, glasses and plates. One other huge drawback are the plastic bottles which most weddings have, which everybody considers extra hygienic. Nevertheless, the answer to all that is reusable cutlery.
Reusable cutlery will be hygienic too, as many weddings lately have proven. Many organisations throughout cities lease out cutlery for large occasions at a nominal value, or freed from value.
Bengaluru moms Anupama Harish and Charulatha R selected to lease metal cutlery from Adamya Chetana, a free cutlery financial institution in Bengaluru. In addition they served meals on banana leaves and used metal plates just for the reception. On this marriage ceremony, by utilizing metal cutlery, 30,000 single-use disposables had been averted.
If renting cutlery shouldn’t be an possibility for you, ask your caterer to make use of glass, metal cups wherever attainable or go for edible cutlery. You possibly can even use upcycled cutlery.
- Go for a easy menu
Wastage is elevated when we’ve got a number of cuisines and counters. Many are choosing native, seasonal elements and going for a easy menu excessive on style. The trick is to go for dishes which contain much less cutlery.
Prashin and Deepa’s marriage ceremony menu consisted of six dishes–made out of seasonal greens, cooked merely and tastefully.
One other couple served wholesome meals, choosing wholesome rice varieties and millets. They didn’t use white rice, maida, sugar or refined salt, utilizing solely naturally and organically grown objects.
{Couples} are additionally utilizing fabric napkins as an alternative of tissues whereas serving meals and ensuring that the desk on which meals is served is both uncovered or lined in fabric to keep away from rolls of paper being wasted.
- Put on household heirlooms
Some of the necessary choices we make, after selecting our partner, is what we’re going to put on. We spend lakhs on our marriage ceremony trousseau and hardly discover time or events to re-wear them.
When Veena Balakrishnan obtained married, she wore the identical saree her grandmother wore for her marriage ceremony virtually 50 years in the past. She additionally wore her household jewels, selecting to not purchase something new.
Very similar to how Madhuri Balodi and Aditya Aggarwal went inexperienced with their selection of automobiles to reach on the marriage ceremony, additionally they selected to purchase their outfits for simply Rs 2,500 and Madhuri has since reworn her saree 5 occasions after the marriage.
- Compost/ recycle the waste
As a lot as we wish, one can’t fully keep away from wastage. What’s necessary is managing it successfully to make sure that it doesn’t pollute the atmosphere.
By tying up with native companies or tying up with organisations that compost, {couples} are guaranteeing that each one the meals waste is composted. At Veena’s marriage ceremony, the vegetable waste was was pulp and the used banana leaves and areca plates had been despatched to a compost pit. The flowers had been was backyard fertilisers and distributed to close by societies.
At a marriage organised by Greenmyna, sustainability consultants, there was a compost pit stored the place all of the waste was being thrown. This additionally created consciousness amongst the attendees.
At Ashutosh and Nidhi’s marriage ceremony in Bengaluru, Vasuki Iyengar, together with the Strong Waste Administration Spherical Desk (SWMRT) workforce dealt with all of the waste. The marriage generated about 1,000 kg of moist waste, which was was 300 kg of compost.
The dry waste was segregated and despatched for recycling.
- Give the leftover meals to the needy
Whereas we will’t do something concerning the meals leftover in folks’s plates, we will undoubtedly guarantee that no cooked meals goes to waste. Make your weddings extra significant by tying up with organisations that serve meals to the poor and ask your caterer to prepare dinner some further meals for this function.
At Veena and Vignesh’s marriage ceremony, the surplus meals and extra meals had been distributed with the assistance of Robinhood Military, a famend non-profit organisation that routes surplus meals from eating places to the much less lucky sections of society in cities throughout India and 12 different international locations.
It’s also possible to distribute it at native orphanages/outdated age properties.
- Give significant return presents
One other main a part of weddings are the return presents, which have develop into much more extravagant as we speak. {Couples} are going inexperienced by gifting seed balls, saplings which individuals can simply plant at residence.
At her son’s marriage ceremony, Anupama gave everybody naturally dyed shirt items. She used a 19-year-old butter paper, which she present in her attic, to wrap the presents. She additionally packed all of the arishina kumkuma (turmeric and vermillion powder) that she had at residence, utilizing paper.
At Veena’s marriage ceremony, visitors got a scrub made out of filter espresso collected from native cafés, packed in outdated paper wrapping!
It’s also possible to go for reusable fabric or jute baggage to present your presents.
- Select minimalism
Proper from the venue to the meals and visitor checklist, the easiest way to actually give again to nature is by going easy. You possibly can name your native coconut sellers, chai sellers and pani puri sellers to arrange stalls on the marriage ceremony, like Madhuri Balodi did. This ensures that there isn’t any wastage.
It’s also possible to cut back the lengthy ceremonies over many days. Veena and Vignesh’s marriage ceremony consisted of only one brief ceremony.
Additionally, inexperienced weddings are cheaper than common ones, due to the discount of flowers, bottled water, thermocol and so on.
Like Madhuri says, “Happiness is paramount, not the size of the marriage.”
Edited by Padmashree Pande
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