German
fireworks sales fizzle on climate anxiety
AFP/The
Local
@thelocalgermany
27 December
2019
12:26
CET+01:00
Pyrotechnic-mad
Germany loves to see in the New Year with a bang but concerns about climate
change have prompted several major retailers to take fireworks off the shelves
this year, local media said Friday.
"The
fireworks last for an hour, but we want to protect animals and have clean air
365 days a year," said Uli Budnik, who runs several REWE supermarkets in
the Dortmund area that have stopped selling fireworks.
One of the
country's main DIY chains, Hornbach, last month announced it was too late to
stop this year's order but that it would ban pyrotechnics from 2020.
Rival chain
Bauhaus said it would be rethinking its fireworks offerings next year "in
view of the environment", while franchise owners of a string of Edeka
supermarkets have already removed them from their stores.
Environmentalists
have cheered the trend, which would have once been unthinkable in a country
where revellers famously fire off huge amounts of pyrotechnics from their lawns
and balconies every New Year's Eve.
It caps a
year marked by heightened climate awareness following massive "Fridays for
Future" demonstrations and a summer of record-high temperatures and severe
droughts.
"We
hope to see a shift in society and that people buy fewer rockets and crackers
this year," Jürgen Resch, head of the German environmental campaign group
DUH, told DPA news agency.
Germany's
fireworks festivities release some 5,000 tonnes of fine particulate matter into
the air on a single night -– equivalent to about two months of road traffic,
according to federal environment agency UBA.
Fine dust
particulate matter is a major contributor to air pollution and is harmful to
both human and animal health.
Many German
cities have already created firework-free zones, to help the environment but
also out of noise and safety concerns.
Demand for
the brightly coloured explosives remains high however, and not all retailers
are ready to turn their backs on fireworks revenues totalling some 130 million
euros a year.
Popular
discounters Aldi, Lidl and Real have said they plan to stay in the pyrotechnics
business.
Fireworks
sales are strictly regulated in Germany and only allowed on the final three
working days of the year.
A YouGov
survey of some 2,000 Germans on Friday found that 57 percent would support a
ban on pyrotechnics for environmental and safety reasons.
But 84
percent said they found fireworks beautiful.
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