Christmas decorations from plastic bottles
Christmas is for peace, joy and happiness, especially enjoyed by children. One major activity is Christmas decorations where homes, hotels, offices and many other places are decorated during the festive season.
Christmas decorations at the Colombo Hilton entrance.
Many organisations this year are transforming waste to decorations like the Christmas decorations at Colombo Hilton for instance. This gives a strong message on how waste matter can be utilised for decorations and recycled. In this context the hotel has used a massive 35,000 empty plastic water bottles, turning decorations out of them.
Ms. Gigi de Silva, Marketing Communications Manager, Colombo Hilton told the Business Times that a 9-member team lead by ‘kitchen artist’ Champika Rajapaksha has turned out 250 Christmas baubles and 230 Christmas snowflakes to illuminate the trees and fences around the hotel during the month of December. After the festive season, Hilton Colombo hopes to dismantle the plastic baubles and snowflakes and send them to a recycling plant to be used for making fabric yarn.
Hilton Colombo has also given an opportunity to SME (small and medium sized enterprises) to display their upcycled, recycled, chemical free and plastic free products on pop up carts in the lobby from December 1 to 28.
A Lockheed aircraft model built with recycled scrap iron on a runway set against a backdrop of two tall Christmas trees with an ‘‘airport’’ adorns the centre of the lobby, bringing the message of this year’s theme ‘‘Home for Christmas’’!
In the meantime John Keells Holdings has also ventured into a similar scheme using waste cardboard and old newspapers to make attractive decorations and, now everyone who visits Keells Supermarket outlets can experience the beautiful sight of the Christmas decorations.
The Creative Director of John Keells in a Facebook account indicated that they used recycled and ecofriendly products to make Christmas decorations. He indicated that they used items that does not have economic value and not used by anybody.
It was stated that to provide a community-based approach, they have got the services of 15 to 20 families and got them involved in this work and these people are not employed. Ninety percent of them were housewives and they used to work only after attending to their house and children’s work.
There maybe many more examples of how, people are increasingly adopting methods to preserve the environment and put waste to better use. These two examples among many reflecting on private sector corporate entities are seeking ways to protect the nature, the environment and how waste matter is put to best use, avoiding environmental degradation.