In 2022 there was a blockage of the Suez Canal.
I was 10 years old when I saw the canal and was shocked at the man-made 'wound'.
They 'calmed' me by explaining that it was an important engineering work to save fuel for the ships which, instead of circumnavigating Africa to reach Europe, were cutting thousands of miles.
The answer did not satisfy my disappointment. But only in adulthood did I understand why what they had told me didn't add up and for this reason I decided that it was my civic and human duty to believe in, create and promote a circular economy.
Have you ever read Rose George's book titled “Ninety Percent of Everything – Inside the Invisible Industry That Brings You the Clothes You Wear, the Gas in Your Car, and the Food on Your Plate”
The experience of this English journalist on board a cargo ship, like the one stuck in the strait, brought to light a truth that has never been addressed in the various international agreements on the environment.
90% of the goods you find on the market travel on cargo ships that move slowly thanks to gigantic engines that pollute in an unimaginable way.
Try to think that 1 of these ships, to bring goods from China to Italy, pollutes like 4 million cars.
Many large European companies use these ships to ship their raw material to Asia, to have it processed and then come back and be put on the market.
And do you know why?
Certainly because labor is cheap in Asia, but above all because the fuel used by container ships, called "bunker oil or impure blood of globalisation" is the product left over after refining petrol, naphtha and diesel.
It is the most polluting petroleum product due to the presence of metals, ash and sulphur, which when combusted are released into the environment.
Huge freighters use it because it costs nothing and allows them to ensure global trade at lower costs and justify moving goods from one continent to another, just to have them processed.
Thousands of these ships circulate in the planet's seas.
Try to think that it would be enough to reduce naval traffic by 0.35% to obtain the same result as the global conversion to electric cars in terms of pollution of the planet.
And YOU, what can you do to boycott this sick system of raw materials management and help our planet in a concrete way?
Buy from local, sustainable companies that have made ethical and sustainable trade for our planet their life mission.
If you are about to go out and buy what you need to celebrate this Easter, THINK! Before purchasing the product, rather than on the label, it is not Italian raw materials but has traveled around the world.
We are the consumers and if we stop buying imported products that have traveled hundreds of thousands of kilometers on a ship or plane, we can stop this massacre.
We consumers are those who move supply and demand.
If you DO NOT look for and DO NOT buy a product that comes from the other side of the world, no company will continue to offer it to you.
Happy conscious Easter!
Support the circular economy
Support small businesses that improve, not destroy our planet.