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It’s marriage ceremony season and the time to make merry. Weddings contain numerous planning and a spotlight to element. Within the age of occasion planners, each facet is taken care of to the T. These massive, fats Indian weddings are numerous enjoyable for the friends 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 nearly 20 % of the meals cooked. Cumulatively, it quantities to $14 billion price of meals.
Individuals have slowly began shifting to eco-friendly weddings the place they contemplate the environmental price and footprint. From utilizing 19-year-old butter paper for packing to going utterly plastic-free and composting/recycling all of the waste produced at weddings, {couples} are going the additional mile to avoid wasting the planet.
Listed here 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 utterly go digital.They only ship invitations by means of Whatsapp or personally invite their family and friends.
Should you should do some printed ones for the older kin, go for seed paper invites which then develop into crops.
Madhuri Balodi and Aditya Aggarwal’s invite requested individuals to come back to the marriage utilizing public transport, cycle or electrical automobiles (EV)s. Additionally they requested friends to deliver crops as a substitute of flowers.
Different {couples} are additionally encouraging friends to keep away from any plastic packaging for the items and a few even ask friends to contribute to environmental organisations of their selection.
- Let your Baraat be electrical
Grooms often 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 buddies cycled to the marriage.
In any case, 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 pals 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 seemed enticing. Additionally they had their buddies make hand-made posters utilizing outdated papers and cardboards to clarify their intention.
“The truth is, the primary welcome board with our names was additionally created from a cardboard field of an LED TV bought by a good friend. With some pens and hues, he turned the board into one thing particular inscribing our names–and it was stunning,” Deepa added.
You too can adorn utilizing newspapers and outdated glass bottles. Strive to make sure that the decorations don’t have plastic and use few native, seasonal flowers. You should utilize vibrant garments to embellish.
- Lease cutlery/ Use banana leaves
The most important contributor to marriage ceremony waste is certainly meals. To serve meals, one wants various kinds of cups, spoons, forks, glasses and plates. One other massive downside are the plastic bottles which most weddings have, which everybody considers extra hygienic. Nevertheless, the answer to all that is reusable cutlery.
Reusable cutlery might be hygienic too, as many weddings in recent times have proven. Many organisations throughout cities lease out cutlery for large occasions at a nominal price, or freed from price.
Bengaluru moms Anupama Harish and Charulatha R selected to lease metal cutlery from Adamya Chetana, a free cutlery financial institution in Bengaluru. Additionally they served meals on banana leaves and used metal plates just for the reception. On this marriage ceremony, through the use of metal cutlery, 30,000 single-use disposables had been prevented.
If renting cutlery is just not an choice for you, ask your caterer to make use of glass, metal cups wherever potential or go for edible cutlery. You may even use upcycled cutlery.
- Go for a easy menu
Wastage is elevated when we now have a number of cuisines and counters. Many are choosing native, seasonal substances 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–created from 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 material napkins as a substitute of tissues whereas serving meals and ensuring that the desk on which meals is served is both uncovered or lined in material to keep away from rolls of paper being wasted.
- Put on household heirlooms
One of the vital vital 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 nearly 50 years in the past. She additionally wore her household jewels, selecting to not purchase something new.
Very like 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 would like, one can’t utterly keep away from wastage. What’s vital 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 every 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 Stable Waste Administration Spherical Desk (SWMRT) group 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 individuals’s plates, we will undoubtedly make it possible for 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 goal.
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.
You too can distribute it at native orphanages/outdated age properties.
- Give significant return items
One other main a part of weddings are the return items, which have grow to be much more extravagant immediately. {Couples} are going inexperienced by gifting seed balls, saplings which individuals can simply plant at dwelling.
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 items. She additionally packed all of the arishina kumkuma (turmeric and vermillion powder) that she had at dwelling, utilizing paper.
At Veena’s marriage ceremony, friends got a scrub made out of filter espresso collected from native cafés, packed in outdated paper wrapping!
You too can go for reusable material or jute baggage to present your items.
- Select minimalism
Proper from the venue to the meals and visitor record, the easiest way to really give again to nature is by going easy. You may 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.
You too can scale back the lengthy ceremonies over many days. Veena and Vignesh’s marriage ceremony consisted of only one quick ceremony.
Additionally, inexperienced weddings are cheaper than common ones, because of the discount of flowers, bottled water, thermocol and many others.
Like Madhuri says, “Happiness is paramount, not the size of the marriage.”
Edited by Padmashree Pande
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