The simple swaps to make your Coronation picnic more eco-friendly

Britons will celebrate one of the most historic events of their lives on Saturday with the coronation of King Charles III.

While the event wouldn’t be complete without a proper royal British feast, there will be mountains of rubbish from the many street parties and picnics.

MailOnline has collected some of the easiest ‘green’ tips in honor of the king, who himself spent a lifetime campaigning for sustainability and the climate.

This includes choosing reusable decorations, cooking from scratch and swapping meat for low-carbon alternatives to create dishes such as ‘Coronation cauliflower’.

Britons have already shared their efforts to make homemade coronation food, which can be more environmentally friendly than store-bought versions.

Coronation cauliflower

Coronation chicken, also known as Poulet Reine Elizabeth, is a famous dish specially created for the coronation of the Queen in June 1953.

It consists of curry powder, mayonnaise, mango chutney and dried fruit mixed with cooked chicken.

But the latter ingredient has a particularly high carbon footprint, according to the ‘Food Carbon Footprint Calculator’An online tool that gives food items a traffic light-like ‘carbon rating’.

It ranks each item by carbon equivalent (CO2e), a unit of measurement scientists use to standardize the climate impacts of various greenhouse gases.

According to the tool, one chicken breast has a ‘high’ carbon footprint of 706g CO2e, while an equivalent weight of cauliflower is only 146g CO2e.

In general, the public can low-carbon their coronation meal by swapping meat products for alternatives such as tofu, falafel or brands such as Quorn.

Mike Berners-Lee, a climate professor at Lancaster University, told MailOnline: ‘For a low-carbon picnic, the science is crystal clear that for most people, by far, the most important consideration will be to reduce the amount of meat and dairy products. .

“The second most important thing is making sure everything gets eaten – even if it’s the next day’s leftovers.”

Cook from scratch

Supermarket shelves are stocked with delicious coronation-themed treats, such as sandwiches, quiche, sausage rolls, and pastries.

While convenient and rather tempting, a more eco-friendly – and possibly less expensive – option is to prepare them from scratch.

According to a Study from 2018 at the University of Manchester, the average climate impact of a homemade option is about two times lower than the impact of the ready-made equivalent with the same ingredients.

The researchers conducted the first-ever study of the carbon footprint of sandwiches, both homemade and prepackaged.

Keeping sandwiches refrigerated in stores also contributes to their carbon footprint — and can account for up to a quarter of their greenhouse gas emissions equivalent, according to the study.

Britons have already shared some of their impressive efforts to make their own coronation creations in the kitchen.

While some of these are interpretations of the classics, others, such as the Charles “sausage finger” sandwich, are more unusual.

Compost leftovers

Instead of cramming your food scraps into the nearest public bin in the park, you can do your bit for Mother Nature by taking it home and composting it.

Food waste thrown away in general bins goes to landfills or incinerators and emits powerful greenhouse gases such as methane and CO2.

But when food waste is composted at home and collected by the council, it is often mixed with yard waste and heated before finally being used as a soil amendment.

Another process uses microorganisms in closed systems to break down the food and capture the released methane, which is converted into biogas and used to generate electricity.

However, a recent study suggests that you should be wary of putting your food waste in a compost bag as they don’t necessarily break down along with the food.

Reusable tableware

For decades, paper plates and single-use plastic cutlery have been paper plates and plastic cutlery, but these are notoriously bad for the environment.

This waste takes years to break down in landfill and can pollute the environment or end up in our waterways and oceans.

An easy alternative is to put your dining tableware in the picnic basket, go ‘plateless’, or just get reusable plastic picnic sets that you can take home and wash up afterwards.

Due to their scourge on our planet, single-use plastic plates, trays and cutlery will be banned from October, the UK government has already announced.

However, the ban does not apply to plates, trays and bowls used as packaging in what the Department of the Environment called “shelf-ready pre-packaged foods.”

Reusable flag line

Reusable streamers are a much more environmentally friendly option than inflatable balloons, which are used once before being thrown away.

Even if disposed of properly, single-use plastic balloon sticks can end up in combustion, causing carbon emissions, the UK government warns – but its effects are even more widespread.

Research conducted by the Australian research agency CSIRO has found that balloons are among the top three most harmful pollutants threatening marine life in particular.

Shocking photos have shown how harmful they can be to birds and marine life that may mistake them for food.

Walk to events

Finally, you can reduce your carbon footprint by simply walking or biking to your local coronation event instead of taking the bus or car.

This is because the vast majority of vehicles on UK roads currently burn petrol or diesel, meaning they emit carbon emissions.

Electric vehicles have low emissions in comparison, but make up only a small percentage of vehicles on the road.

The government will ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2030, in an effort to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and the government’s goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.