Aw, shucks.
If you’re deeply in love and planning to get married soon, good for you – we’re not jealous and bitter at all.
Weddings can be really nice occasions defined by true love, good food, and some lad getting drunk and deciding to commandeer the stage to sing his own questionable rendition of INXS’s Never Tear Us Apart.
But apparently, they can also be super bad for the environment.
Well, guess we’ll have to be single forever.
According to new data compiled by Daffodil Hotel & Spa, the average wedding produces 14.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Compare this to the carbon emissions produced per person per year in the UK, which is 9.1 tonnes and yeah, it’s loads.
Bit grim really.
So what causes all of these emissions?
Some of the obvious things are to blame like the amount of meat consumed, food that hasn’t been locally sourced, and weddings that require people to travel long distances.
But then there are other things you probably wouldn’t have considered like the amount of time and money that’s gone into making a wedding dress that then (most likely) has to be shipped overseas only to be worn once before it’s hidden away in the back of a wardrobe forever.
Sure, some of us might wear vintage dresses and even have them retailored after the big day so we can wear them again, but let’s be honest with ourselves here – the vast majority of us won’t.
Then there’s the decorations.
Single-use plastic cups, plastic straws, and plastic decorations are all well and fine until you consider how truly wasteful they are.
Plastic-free weddings are becoming more and more common these days, but we’ve still a very long way to go before everybody tying the knot is jumping on that environmental train.
Don’t forget the honeymoon either – just like guests travelling to your big day (73 percent of all emissions at weddings come from people trying to get there – madness, isn’t it?), you travelling after your big day is also going to not be so great for the environment.
Looks like staying single does actually have its perks after all.
