November 23-25 LITEXPO during the "Sustainable Future 2023" exhibition-conference, an exceptional 8-meter high sustainable Christmas tree will be lit. According to Jonas Sakalauskas, head of the LITEXPO center, this fir tree is a kind of manifesto that aims to remind people that it is possible to consume, live and even celebrate holidays consciously and sustainably, without succumbing to endless consumption.
According to the organizers of the exhibition, the most sustainable Christmas tree in Lithuania is decorated by the company "EMP Recycling", which is determined to show an example of how a beautiful and joyful holiday can be created from electronic waste.
The sustainable Christmas tree lighting ceremony will take place on the first day of the "Sustainable Future 2023" exhibition-conference, at 18.00:XNUMX p.m. Participation in the exhibition is free, as tickets are given to visitors by "Swedbank".
Darius Valeika, head of the electronics and metal waste recycling company EMP Recycling, says that the idea of this year's project was tested on a much smaller scale last year among the team members.
"The idea came from looking for more original and different means. Last year, for the company's celebration, we made ten small frames, which each department of the company decorated in its own way. It was a kind of prelude to this year's much more ambitious and larger project," says D. Valeika, CEO of EMP Recycling, about the emergence of the idea.
According to him, it was intended to show the existing decorating alternatives. The LITEXPO center was impressed by this idea and encouraged to take on a bigger project.
The sustainable Christmas tree will be decorated with recycled electronics and their parts, which are usually a difficult and time-consuming process to recycle.
According to the head of EMP Recycling, the implementation of the process is now in the hands of the artists. Their most important task is to maintain a balance between aesthetics and the desired message about the importance of sustainability.
Speaking about the broader significance of the sustainable Christmas tree project, D. Valeika claimed that the most important of the company's activities in the field of sustainability this year was education, divided into three segments: business, employees and society.
"We dedicated the last year to public education. We believe it is important that people understand how to deal with electronic or other waste. We try not to choose a traditional way of communication, but to find more interesting, humanized angles, as in this case, the Most Sustainable Christmas Tree. At the same time, we aim to recover as many secondary raw materials as possible and to introduce the circular economy more and more," explains the head of EMP Recycling.
According to him, people often still think that they do not really determine the processes and do not influence them, but this belief is wrong.
"The European Commission conducted a study showing that on average one family farm has 72 electronic devices, of which 11 are not working. Consequently, almost every home has equipment that can be used, recycled or given a second life. We hope that this Christmas tree project will be able to stimulate thinking or at least the desire to count how many non-functioning appliances there really are at home", D. Valeika shared the expectations of the project's results.
