| Plastic flowers for Mother's Day? Say it is not so
Yet that's precisely what it sounded like Freidberg, a Dartmouth College professor of geography, was advocating on American Public Media's "Marketplace" radio program last week.
And she said figuring out the best purchase in any given situation isn't just about a particular product's "carbon footprint," a measure of carbon dioxide emissions.
Freidberg, who has been studying the politics of measuring food's "footprint," said those plastic flowers are likely manufactured overseas, using materials that have their own environmental costs.
And there was Freidberg weighing in on the environmental merits of buying plastic flowers: "Because they're so lightweight, they wouldn't have to be flown anywhere; they wouldn't decompose and create greenhouse gases in any landfill; there's the endless lifespan, so the possibilities for regifting them.
You also could go with daylilies, or even grasses, that are "very popular right now," Andrus said.
The bottom line for Mother's Day? "Do you want to give your mother something that's dead or alive?" Andrus asked.
In the end, she said, "We can spend an entire lot of time and mental energy worrying about the carbon footprint of this product versus that product, but oftentimes those differences may be trivial compared to the larger lifestyle.
To reduce your carbon footprint this Mother's Day, Dubner suggested, give plastic flowers rather than real ones, which often are flown here from "equatorial countries" and then trucked across the country, he said. "Now we've got something which will not break down for many, many years," he said.
Freidberg said figuring out the environmental costs of any individual product is complicated.
He's not buying the fake flowers argument either; those are made overseas, so there's a big carbon footprint in getting them here, Demers said.
When you go to your local garden center to buy Mother's Day plants and flowers, Demers said, "You're going to get a lot of homegrown material, and you'll be supporting New Hampshire agriculture.
And when the flowers are gone, he said, the plants and soil can be composted and the pots can be recycled.
"They do what plants do: They take the bad stuff out of the air and replace it with oxygen.
Andrus contends there are psychological benefits to choosing real plants as well: "Seeing something grow, and nurturing something, taking care of something.
Robert Demers of Demers Garden Center in Manchester suggests a nice hanging basket of flowers for Mom.
There are smaller growers here who raise kinds of cut flowers, such as carnations and snapdragons, he said.
Among his suggestions for Mother's Day gifts: the hydrangeas, roses and lilacs you can find at garden centers across the state.
But Freidberg tells the New Hampshire Sunday News that they left out what she said right after that: "I would never want to get plastic flowers. |
Monday 7 May 2012
Plastic flowers for Mother's Day? Say it is not so
