Living memory – living flowers!

Annually, on Radunitsa, people bring artificial flowers to cemeteries to honor the memory of their departed loved ones. However, few consider the environmental harm caused by such "plants."

Artificial flowers negatively impact the environment and public health by dispersing plastic particles and hazardous components. Most flowers are made from cheap and not always safe materials. During production, they are repeatedly treated with chemicals to ensure durability and then colored with toxic aniline dyes, which can cause dizziness, headaches, and general weakness.

Such flowers are not recyclable due to the difficulty in identifying the type of material they are made from. Artificial flowers cannot be sorted and, as a result, end up in landfills, thereby increasing the anthropogenic load on the environment. They begin to release toxic substances, polluting soil, air, and groundwater. Their decomposition period lasts several hundred years. When burned, heavy metals and dioxins are released into the atmosphere, negatively affecting human health.

Approximately 1 million plastic flowers are transported to municipal solid waste landfills annually after holidays!

There is no official ban on the use of artificial flowers. Of course, they last much longer and have brighter colors compared to live ones. However, it is important to remember that flowers are brought to graves as a sign of love for the deceased. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment urges the use of live potted plants, perennials planted in the ground, dwarf shrubs, lawn grass, evergreen coniferous trees, or simply a modest bouquet of fresh-cut flowers for the beautification of burial sites. Yes, they will not last as long, but they will be real.