It's the magical time of the year we can enjoy a new Suesa's science challenge!
This time the theme is on Christmas and what if Santa was real? How would things work to make it possible?
Image from Pixabay
I have chosen to approach the natural resource consumption, as most gifts given in Christmas contain plastic. Toys, electronics, Japanese cars, clothes? I'm not talking about plastic rain coats or similar, but most common synthetic fibers are basically plastics (like polyester or nylon)! Read more!
In general, more and more plastics are used, and plenty of plastics end up in places they shouldn't, like the oceans. Source
As the trend is growing, the creation of more and more plastics require more and more oil, as plastic is an oil based material.
Santa creating majority of the Christmas presents in his workshop would require massive amounts of resources to be created and transported to his workshop. As the main method of transportation to Santa's workshop is the flying reindeer, we can't assume such amounts of raw materials to be transported to the workshop while maintaining the reindeer's strength for Christmas holidays.
Image from Pixabay
The solution might be that majority of the plastics required in the Santa's workshop are collected from the junk plastics. As we know, there are extremely low amounts of plastic in the North and in the other sea areas close to Finland! Source
And please remember: we all know Santa Claus lives in Lapland. No talk about the North Pole.
Image from Pixabay
Most of the year Santa is assumed to run a plastics collecting plant on the seaside to collect plastic materials from the sea. It might be seabin style or something else, like ocean cleanup project has designed. We assume all these project were inspired by Santa Claus.
We have data to back up our claim. Even though world population is steadily increasing and thus the total amount of presents is increasing, the amount of plastics created in Europe is not increasing! Source
This is a clear signal Santa is not creating new plastics, but instead using existing resources to create toys for children. And remember; Santa Claus lives in his workshop in Finland, which is a country in Europe.
Image from Pixabay
Santa Claus is known for his kindness towards children, however it's a little known fact he's also helping to clear the waters from excess plastics.
What an awesome deed from such a kind man like him.
Well done Santa Claus. Well done.
Now let's dump some more plastics in the ocean to give more materials for Santa. Think of the children!
Sources used:
Worldwatch Institute, "Global Plastic Production Rises, Recycling Lags"
Textile World, Alasdair Carmichael, "Man-Made Fibers Continue To Grow"
Michael Gross, "Oceans of plastic waste"
PlasticsEurope, "Plastics – the Facts 2015"