Dublin Zoo’s Wild Lights out of sync with need for circular economy

Long ago as a London commuter the walk from Charing Cross station took me past the back of Covent Garden opera house. Some mornings they loaded out stage props, a glimpse of the magic wheeled into grey morning reality, dazzle becoming detritus.

Decades later there is nothing that delivers a bigger dose of winter woes than a February wander round the back of the Polo grounds in the Phoenix Park. There you may see the sorrowful remains of the Wild Lights, Dublin Zoo’s night time attraction, in piles of sodden mess.

It’s a seasonal staple. Around now there are sounds of welding and glimpses of the beautiful creations in a fenced-off marquee as the team assembles the pyramids and an Eiffel Tower for the “Around the world” themed event. Every year it’s a new theme. There have been ocean creatures and (yes, indeed) polar bears.

Craftspeople working for the Chinese makers have flown in every year (bar last year) since 2017 to assemble the Wild Lights. In an interview, a manager of lantern company Zigong VYA, explained that it took 50 days for “60 craftsmen” to make these creations in China and another 45 days to assemble them in Dublin, a process involving “50 tonnes of steel and tens of thousands of LEDs.”

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So why will this season’s painstakingly-crafted artefacts become next season’s junk pile? All materials are “100 per cent recycled,” a spokesman for Dublin Zoo said, “except those that we store and re-use yearly”. Why aren’t they all stored and reused?

“Dublin Zoo prides itself on bringing a stunning new Wild Lights experience to visitors each year,” they said. Some previous year’s lanterns are re-used “generally as background scenery that complements and adds to our yearly themes.” This means a tricky survival rate for lantern polar bears and blue whales, I’d imagine.

Wild Lights is a huge hit, attracting more than 200,000 visitors in a seasonal boost to Zoo revenue. Its cancellation last year because of Covid was greeted with dismay.

Should Dublin Zoo really be proud of bringing us newness if it creates a mountainous scrap heap of resources shipped from so far away? Could children be just as delighted to see the same installations each year? We greet our Christmas baubles as familiar favourites, even the one-eyed toilet roll snowmen.

What are the carbon emissions of “Around the World”?

“We are committed to limiting the environmental impact, and offsetting the carbon cost,” the Zoo said. I’m going full grinch here. Offsetting won’t cut it. We need to stop emitting carbon and embed a circular economy culture in Irish life.

Please spend it better on care and storage Dublin Zoo.

Otherwise, Wild Lights seems wildly out of sync.

Catherine Cleary is co-founder of Pocket Forests