It is time to trash the poppy.
Now, I’m not saying we should get rid of it altogether, I’m saying there needs to a revamp. Manufacturers should either get rid of the flocking or turn to paper poppies. Since 1996, Dominion Regalia, a company which specializes in making awards and identification products, has held the contract to produce 16-18 million poppy pins for Canadians. That’s about one for every 2 people in Canada.
The proper procedure with poppies is to donate to the Royal Canadian Legion, who according to their website “offer programs and services for a wide variety of groups on both local and national levels” to veterans and their families. The donator then gets a poppy, hopefully, wears it until Remembrance Day, and then they are to lay them on the grave of a soldier or veteran. The truth of the matter is, not many people are able to conduct this last step, and since it is severely frowned upon, by society, to reuse the same they gather either in drawers or are simply thrown out, left to sit in landfills for thousands of years. Not a great message to leave.
Let’s do a bit of math. According to the Recycling Council of British Columbia, Canadians generate about 31 million tonnes of garbage a year and recyclable items make up around 30 percent. That’s still 21.7 million tonnes of garbage going into landfills. Now, poppies likely do not make up a huge percentage of that, however, there are 16-18 million poppies produced a year. According to a poll done by the Huffington Post, almost 40 percent of people who answered stated they either throw out the poppy or lose it. 20 percent said they dropped it off at a memorial site so that’s likely about 60 percent of these poppies ending up in the garbage at some point. This means that about 6.4-9.6 million poppies end up in a landfill every year. This means from 2000 there have likely been approximately 83-125 million poppies finding their way into landfills.
Currently, the poppies that are donned during the weeks leading up to Remembrance Day are a type of plastic called polyethylene, the same stuff that makes some plastic bags and bottles. Polyethylene itself is recyclable, but it’s the fuzzy stuff on top, referred to a “flocking,” that makes the poppies non-recyclable. They also take years to decompose, and that time span increases when they got tossed into the landfill. Even those that get to their “proper place” (graves of soldiers and veterans) eventually get swept up and dumped into the garbage anyway. Really what kind of message does that send? The thing used to symbolize thankfulness and support of veterans get dumped into the garbage when they are no longer necessary.
Of course, keeping costs down is a big priority, to the manufacturers of the poppies, with many of the poppies given out for free or for minimal donations. Eliminating the flocking will cut these costs as it is an extra component made from very small fibre particles. These particles are then glued to the plastic so not only will manufacturers get of the cost of the flocking they’ll get rid of the cost of the glue. The removal of these things would also make the poppies recyclable, so at least they could be put to another use.
Now, what would making them out of paper fix? To begin with, it would make the poppies recyclable, or at the very least would allow them to decompose if they fell to the ground. Second, paper is a lot harder to maintain over the course of a year, so it will mean less reusing of poppies and more donations to the Royal Canadian Legion. There also has to be consideration towards the symbolism of the poppies left on the graves, decomposing into the earth with the solider they were given to. An image which could be considered fairly poetic, by some.
Both Great Britain and the United States use paper poppies in their respective veterans’ campaigns. Both places have a far larger population than Canada, meaning production and distribution should not pose a problem. An added bonus, of course, would be if they used recycled paper, as it would allow more trees to remain standing.
So rather than have these poppies take up drawers, or be litter on the sidewalks after ceremonies there should be a poppy that is either able to serve as more than a poppy or be able to decompose in a reasonable amount of time. After all, a thousand years from now do we want people to be standing on top of what used to be a landfill digging down and coming upon a pocket of poppy pins? Knowing that this was our way of honouring veterans and finding them in amongst the garbage would be a little disheartening. ← Back to portfolio
Now, I’m not saying we should get rid of it altogether, I’m saying there needs to a revamp. Manufacturers should either get rid of the flocking or turn to paper poppies. Since 1996, Dominion Regalia, a company which specializes in making awards and identification products, has held the contract to produce 16-18 million poppy pins for Canadians. That’s about one for every 2 people in Canada.
The proper procedure with poppies is to donate to the Royal Canadian Legion, who according to their website “offer programs and services for a wide variety of groups on both local and national levels” to veterans and their families. The donator then gets a poppy, hopefully, wears it until Remembrance Day, and then they are to lay them on the grave of a soldier or veteran. The truth of the matter is, not many people are able to conduct this last step, and since it is severely frowned upon, by society, to reuse the same they gather either in drawers or are simply thrown out, left to sit in landfills for thousands of years. Not a great message to leave.
Let’s do a bit of math. According to the Recycling Council of British Columbia, Canadians generate about 31 million tonnes of garbage a year and recyclable items make up around 30 percent. That’s still 21.7 million tonnes of garbage going into landfills. Now, poppies likely do not make up a huge percentage of that, however, there are 16-18 million poppies produced a year. According to a poll done by the Huffington Post, almost 40 percent of people who answered stated they either throw out the poppy or lose it. 20 percent said they dropped it off at a memorial site so that’s likely about 60 percent of these poppies ending up in the garbage at some point. This means that about 6.4-9.6 million poppies end up in a landfill every year. This means from 2000 there have likely been approximately 83-125 million poppies finding their way into landfills.
Currently, the poppies that are donned during the weeks leading up to Remembrance Day are a type of plastic called polyethylene, the same stuff that makes some plastic bags and bottles. Polyethylene itself is recyclable, but it’s the fuzzy stuff on top, referred to a “flocking,” that makes the poppies non-recyclable. They also take years to decompose, and that time span increases when they got tossed into the landfill. Even those that get to their “proper place” (graves of soldiers and veterans) eventually get swept up and dumped into the garbage anyway. Really what kind of message does that send? The thing used to symbolize thankfulness and support of veterans get dumped into the garbage when they are no longer necessary.
Of course, keeping costs down is a big priority, to the manufacturers of the poppies, with many of the poppies given out for free or for minimal donations. Eliminating the flocking will cut these costs as it is an extra component made from very small fibre particles. These particles are then glued to the plastic so not only will manufacturers get of the cost of the flocking they’ll get rid of the cost of the glue. The removal of these things would also make the poppies recyclable, so at least they could be put to another use.
Now, what would making them out of paper fix? To begin with, it would make the poppies recyclable, or at the very least would allow them to decompose if they fell to the ground. Second, paper is a lot harder to maintain over the course of a year, so it will mean less reusing of poppies and more donations to the Royal Canadian Legion. There also has to be consideration towards the symbolism of the poppies left on the graves, decomposing into the earth with the solider they were given to. An image which could be considered fairly poetic, by some.
Both Great Britain and the United States use paper poppies in their respective veterans’ campaigns. Both places have a far larger population than Canada, meaning production and distribution should not pose a problem. An added bonus, of course, would be if they used recycled paper, as it would allow more trees to remain standing.
So rather than have these poppies take up drawers, or be litter on the sidewalks after ceremonies there should be a poppy that is either able to serve as more than a poppy or be able to decompose in a reasonable amount of time. After all, a thousand years from now do we want people to be standing on top of what used to be a landfill digging down and coming upon a pocket of poppy pins? Knowing that this was our way of honouring veterans and finding them in amongst the garbage would be a little disheartening. ← Back to portfolio
