The holiday season highlights our propensity for material overconsumption, even if Quebecers say, poll after poll, that they are concerned about protecting the environment. There are nevertheless avenues to get out of the consumerist spiral, for our well-being and that of a planet that suffers from the excesses of our economic system.
A survey conducted recently by the Quebec Retail Council (CQCD) welcomed the “renewed optimism” of consumers, despite the ever-pervasive specter of the pandemic. According to data collected by the association, many Quebecers have taken advantage of the Black Friday sales and want to shop at Boxing Day, but they also plan to spend more than before the health crisis during the holiday season, including on the purchase of gifts, food, clothing and alcohol. In short, we are witnessing a return to normal, with all that this implies as excess material consumption.
“The holiday season is obviously conducive to overconsumption and exacerbates waste, both for objects that will not be used as for meals and food that will end up in the brown bin or the trash rather than being eaten. “, Deplores Amélie Côté, source reduction analyst at Équiterre.” We often analyze the climate crisis from the perspective of sectors such as the fossil industry, transport or agriculture, but they all have something to do with them. one thing in common: they are intrinsically linked to our consumption. “
The same story goes for the holder of the Chair in Energy Sector Management at HEC Montréal, Pierre-Olivier Pineau. “As our lifestyle is generally not consistent with climate goals, our holiday celebrations are not. Our modes of transport consume too much energy, our purchases are still too focused on new material goods, and our diet is too focused on animal products, namely meats and dairy products. “
Family meals, where meat, poultry or seafood are most often found, come with a significant environmental footprint. Taking production into account alone, each kilogram (kg) of beef generates around 30 kg of greenhouse gases (GHGs, in CO equivalent2), according to the different data available. For pork, the count is 12 kg for each kilogram produced, compared to 10 kg for turkey and 7 kg for chicken. As for farmed shrimp, their carbon footprint is around 27 kg per kilo, according to published data by an organization associated with the University of Oxford.
The carbon footprint of alcohol is generally lower, with an average of 1.1 kg per bottle of wine for France, but that, without counting its transport so far. Viticulture, however, requires a very large amount of water.
Waste
By exacerbating our material consumption, the holiday season also amplifies the production of waste, of which Quebecers are already large producers on an annual basis: 710 kg per Quebecer in 2020, according to data from Recyc-Quebec. Even though recycling and compost bins have been part of our daily lives for a long time, there is still a lot to do.
According to Recyc-Québec’s most recent report, that of 2018 (the next one will be published in 2022), the recycling rate of recyclable materials from residences reached 52%. This rate was significantly lower for glass (28%), like that of wine bottles, and plastic (25%), ubiquitous during the holidays. For organic materials, such as table scraps, the recycling rate was only 27%.
The recent CQCD survey also indicates that the purchase of clothing and electronic devices is one of the priorities on the list of Quebec consumers for the holiday season. However, in both cases, large quantities of material end up in the landfill or are never recovered. According to data from Recyc-Québec, for 63,000 tonnes of “clothing and other textile articles” recovered in 2018, 74,000 tonnes were sent to the trash.
For cell phones, Recyc-Québec’s 2018 report states that the recovery rate has barely reached 9%. In the case of laptops and tablets, the rate drops to just 3%, and to 1% for “portable audio-video” systems, such as iPods. Not to mention the environmental and social impacts of the production of goods that have a short lifespan.
Green all year round?
Well aware of the environmental impacts of material and food consumption during the Holidays, Valériane Champagne-Saint-Arnaud, professor in the Marketing Department at Laval University, pleads for a reflection that goes beyond this very limited period in the weather.
“Nobody asks us to be perfect all the time, especially after Christmas 2020. If we say to ourselves that we want to eat meat pie, that’s completely normal. But if we can reduce our climate impact throughout the year, then why not the turkey and the pie at Christmas, but also gifts? I prefer to see a citizen who allows himself a few non-ecological sins during the holiday season, but who reduces his environmental footprint throughout the year, ”she argues.
“Even if we are talking about overconsumption and environmental impacts, I do not have the impression that we are going to reduce our consumption. We must therefore encourage consumers to think about reorienting themselves towards elements that are more beneficial for the environment, ”adds Caroline Boivin, full professor at the School of Management of the University of Sherbrooke.
“Consumption, as responsible as it is, is not an act in a vacuum. It generates impacts at all stages of the life cycle of objects: when we extract resources to create them, when we transform them, when we transport them, when we use them, when we manage them at the end of their life, or worse. , when they are wasted, ”nevertheless emphasizes Amélie Côté.
Co-author of the book For an ecology of the 99%, published by Écososiété, Arnaud Theurillat-Cloutier believes that it can be difficult for citizens to escape the overconsumption that characterizes the Christmas period. “There is a very strong social pressure and which is linked to a festival which is culturally very important in the West. But it has been recovered largely by consumption, which is at the heart of our society and which is much more important for the profitability of companies than for the meaning that individuals give to their existence. “
” Of consumption “
This social pressure can also lead to a form of outbidding the quantity and value of the gifts offered, according to Mr. Theurillat-Cloutier. “The purchase of gifts, but especially their size and their price, will give, to the people who buy them as to the people who receive them, an idea of their social status in the hierarchy of our societies. Part of this has to do with the fact that we are very unequal societies and we try to stand out. Consumption can be used in part to show that we are richer than we really are. “
In this context, Pierre-Olivier Pineau invites us to thoroughly review our ways of doing things. “For gifts, it is better to offer services (cinema, theater, music, personal care, etc.) which consume less materials whose extraction, production and transport are a source of greenhouse gas emissions. greenhouse, but also avoid new items. Opting for a vegetarian or even vegan menu would not only be better for climate issues, but probably more in line with the Christmas spirit, which evokes sharing and love, and not intensive farming and slaughterhouses. He argues.
Valériane Champagne-Saint-Arnaud suggests going further by turning to “deconsumption”, which is a form of degrowth. “In recent years, I no longer buy Christmas gifts for my family: I prepare boxes of homemade meals. It is certainly longer than going to the mall, but the pleasure is greatly increased. The preparation of gifts begins in the spring, when I prepare the seeds for the garden: squash, carrots, leeks, etc. I already know that it will be transformed at Christmas into soups, quiches or pâtés. Honestly, this is the kind of gift that I enjoy giving the most, because it is kind to the planet, it is fun to prepare and it really gives pleasure. “