The die is cast—or rather, the rocket has been launched. After years of social discussion and political debate, the Senate passed the private member's bill for a national ban on consumer fireworks on 1 July. This means that from the 2026/2027 turn of the year, it will be prohibited for consumers to set off fireworks. The environmental impact was one of the main drivers behind the ban. At Hedgehog, we like to look at the facts behind sustainability. Now that the decision has been made, the pragmatic question remains: what does this actually deliver for us?
The answer is surprisingly concrete. Data from sources including the Emission Inventory (Emissieregistratie) shows that with this ban, we are eliminating one of the largest sources of specific heavy metals in one fell swoop. In the Netherlands, fireworks are responsible for no less than 30% of all copper emissions and 15% of all antimony emissions into the environment. And all of that is normally emitted within a timeframe of just 24 hours.
In this article, we take stock. We look at the exact quantities, the toxic cocktail of heavy metals, and the impact on air quality.
How many fireworks go up into the air every year?
To calculate the environmental gain, we first need to know what we are talking about. The Dutch are lovers of fireworks—the greatest in Europe. During the 2024-2025 turn of the year, a record amount of €118 million worth of fireworks was sold.
For the environmental impact, it is primarily the kilograms that are interesting. The exact weight is not officially tracked, but based on sales figures and police estimates, it involves approximately 13 million kilos of legal fireworks per year.
However, the counter doesn't stop there. A significant flow of illegal fireworks enters the country annually. While the police seized nearly 79,000 kilos in 2023, experts estimate that 1 to 2 million kilos of illegal fireworks are actually set off every year.
The total is substantial:
- Legal fireworks: 13 million kilos
- Illegal fireworks: 1 to 2 million kilos
- Total: 11 to 15 million kilos per turn of the year.
The various components
Fireworks consist of different components. The largest part of a rocket or a ‘cake’ is made of paper, cardboard, clay, or plastic. Only 10% to 20% of it consists of gunpowder.
Fireworks do not simply vanish after the bang. Everything that goes up into the air also comes back down. The majority of those millions of kilos end up directly on the street, in gardens, or in nature as waste after being set off. In addition to the waste, the combustion of the gunpowder—which consists of a mix of heavy metals—causes chemical gases, fine dust (particulate matter), and dust formation that are harmful to the environment.
First, we calculate how much waste in the form of paper, plastic, and wood our fireworks tradition causes during the turn of the year. The composition differs per type:
- Firecrackers: Consist almost entirely of paper and leave behind nearly a kilo of waste per kilo of fireworks (900 grams of paper/cardboard).
- Display fireworks: A more complex mix of paper, cardboard, wood, plastic, and even China clay (used as weighting material).
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If we translate the total annual amount of fireworks into a mountain of waste, the ban prevents an enormous stream of residual material. Based on the assumption that 85% of fireworks are display fireworks, the ban saves the following annual waste stream:
- Paper and cardboard: Between 6.5 and 9 million kilos.
- Plastics: Between 168 and 230 tonnes (which could otherwise end up in the environment as microplastics).
- Wood and clay: Both also between 168 and 230 tonnes.
Fortunately, the majority is swept up by municipal cleaning services, yet not everything disappears. Especially in water-rich areas and nature strips, residual waste often remains, where materials slowly decay or end up in surface water.
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Colour effects through the combustion of heavy metals
The most polluting component of fireworks are the heavy metals that cause the colour effects upon combustion. Display fireworks especially contain these heavy metals, but firecrackers also contribute to the emission of specific components (see Table 3).
Research by Dröge and Roex (2018) shows that display fireworks primarily contribute to the pollution of soil and surface water, including via the sewerage system. Firecrackers play hardly any role in this. Furthermore, per kilogram, display fireworks cause about twice as much emission to the air as firecrackers. Because the majority of fireworks set off consist of display fireworks (approx. 85%, compared to 15% firecrackers), the total emission to the air by display fireworks is ultimately even ten times higher than that of firecrackers.
Many of these chemicals form harmful by-products upon combustion. Firework smoke contains, among other things, heavy metals, sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides, ozone, fine dust (PM2.5/PM10), and polychlorinated dioxins and furans (PCDD/F). These substances are persistent, toxic, and, according to research, can contribute to hormonal disruption, cancer, respiratory problems, and ecosystem disruptions.
The use of black gunpowder and flash powder inevitably creates dioxins and HCB (hexachlorobenzene). Flash powder with perchlorates also increases the risk of water pollution.
We highlight a few metals that give fireworks their spectacular colours, but which unfortunately also have a dark side. These specific substances are harmful to the soil, the water, and the air we breathe. We will show you how much of this pollution we save if we skip the fireworks for a year.
1. Copper (Blue)
Copper oxide provides the blue colour but is ecologically problematic. Copper is highly toxic to aquatic organisms and acts as a biocide; in high concentrations, it is lethal to fish and algae. Because fireworks are often set off in urban areas near water, this washes directly into the surface water.
- Prevented emission: 63,800 to 87,000 kilos of copper.
2. Barium (Green)
Barium compounds give green light but are toxic to humans and animals in soluble form. Upon inhalation, it can irritate the respiratory tract and affect heart rhythm. Once in the soil, it easily leaches into the groundwater.
- Prevented emission: 125,400 to 171,000 kilos of barium.
3. Strontium (Red)
Used for the red colour. Strontium chemically resembles calcium, meaning the bodies of humans and animals can mistake it for calcium and store it in bone tissue. This causes an accumulation in the ecosystem that remains measurable for years.
- Prevented emission: 40,700 to 55,500 kilos of strontium.
4. Antimony (Glitter)
Antimony is added for the 'twinkle effect'. It is highly toxic and is considered carcinogenic. Smoke from fireworks with antimony is therefore significantly more harmful than 'ordinary' smoke.
- Prevented emission: 9,900 to 13,500 kilos of antimony.
In total, we prevent hundreds of thousands of kilos of heavy metals from being scattered across the Netherlands annually. Approximately 90% of these metals fall directly onto the ground or into the water, while 10% remains suspended in the air as fine dust.
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Fine dust and fireworks
Fine dust (particulate matter) is a collective term for very small particles in the air that you cannot see but do breathe in. People often talk about PM10 and PM2.5. These abbreviations indicate the size of the particles: PM10 is smaller than 10 micrometres and PM2.5 is smaller than 2.5 micrometres. For comparison: a human hair is about 70 micrometres thick.
PM2.5 is a subset of PM10 and consists of the very smallest particles, such as soot, organic substances, and ammonium salts. It is precisely these small particles that are extra unhealthy, as they can penetrate deep into the lungs and even enter the bloodstream. Inhaling fine dust can lead to respiratory complaints and is particularly unpleasant for people with lung problems or vulnerable health.
Fireworks cause a significant spike in air pollution in a short space of time. Measurements show that around New Year, especially just after midnight, concentrations of fine dust can be dozens of times higher than normal. This effect is stronger in cities than in rural areas because more fireworks are set off there.
Air pollution from fireworks is primarily measured as PM10. Notably, about 52% of these emissions consist of PM2.5, the smallest and most harmful fraction. These high concentrations linger especially when it is windless and not raining. In such situations, air quality can remain poor for hours. The advice for people affected by this is therefore to stay indoors for a while after the turn of the year.
How large is the contribution of fireworks?
Although the peak around the turn of the year is very intense, it involves a short period. Nevertheless, the contribution of fireworks to the total annual fine dust emissions is not negligible.
In 2023, fireworks emitted approximately 1.4 kilotonnes of PM10. The total annual PM10 emissions in the Netherlands that year were 29.3 kilotonnes, which amounts to approximately 4.8% of total PM10 emissions.
For PM2.5, the share is similar: in 2023, 738 tonnes of PM2.5 were emitted by fireworks, or about 4.5% of total annual PM2.5 emissions.
By comparison: traffic, agriculture, industry, and consumers (such as wood burning) are all major sources of fine dust. Within the ‘consumers’ category, fireworks therefore play a clear role, alongside wood-burning stoves, for example.
Metals in fireworks: not always fine dust
The metals that give fireworks their colours are part of the fine dust, but not all metals that are released end up in the air. About 10% of the metal emissions from fireworks actually end up in the air and can thus potentially become part of fine dust. The other 90% of the metals fall to the ground, enter the sewer, or are cleaned up later.
In other words: some of the metals can float in fine particles and thus contribute to PM10 or PM2.5, but the majority does not directly affect air quality.
CO2 emissions during ignition vs. production
As experts in carbon accounting, we at Hedgehog naturally also look at the carbon footprint. Here, we must distinguish between the direct emissions upon ignition (scope 1) and the hidden impact of production (scope 3).
Direct emissions (combustion)
When fireworks are set off, greenhouse gases are released. On average, 43.3 grams of CO₂ enter the air per kilogram of fireworks. In addition, gases such as methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) are released, both of which have a much stronger greenhouse effect than CO₂.
Based on annual consumption, the ban prevents the following direct emissions:
- CO₂: 476,300 to 649,500 kg
- Methane (CH₄): 8,800 to 12,000 kg
- Nitrous oxide (N₂O): 20,900 to 28,500 kg
Although CO₂ emissions themselves are relatively limited, nitrous oxide (N₂O) in particular, and methane (CH₄) to a lesser extent, cause the total climate impact to rise to approximately 6.3–8.5 kilotonnes of CO₂ equivalent per year.
Impact of production
The direct emissions from setting off fireworks are only the tip of the iceberg. The fireworks production chain is complex and environmentally taxing. Raw materials such as saltpetre and sulphur must be extracted, often through mining that damages forests and habitats.
Paper and cardboard must be processed, and chemicals are transported across the globe. Although exact CO₂ figures per kilogram of fireworks are difficult to establish without a specific Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the environmental impact of extraction, production, and transport from Asia to Europe is significantly greater than that of the brief moment of combustion itself.
Environmental effects of fireworks production
The production of fireworks has an environmental impact through raw material extraction, industrial processing, and international transport. These effects largely take place before use and primarily outside the Netherlands.
These metals and chemical substances for colour effects are extracted via mining and the chemical industry, mainly in China and other Asian countries. Mining leads to the degradation of landscapes, loss of biodiversity, and pollution of soil and water by residual materials and heavy metals. Furthermore, chemical processing is energy-intensive and is accompanied by emissions of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants. Unfortunately, full public life cycle assessments of consumer fireworks do not yet exist, but it is clear that the extraction and processing of these raw materials contribute substantially to $CO_2$ emissions and local environmental damage.
The production of paper and cardboard for casings and structural parts also causes environmental pressure. Paper production requires a lot of water and energy and leads to wastewater streams that can contain chemical substances. Because fireworks are largely used only once, this material use contributes to extra raw material consumption without long-term functional value.
After production, fireworks are transported over long distances, usually by container ship from Asia to Europe. This transport causes emissions of $CO_2$, nitrogen oxides, and sulphur oxides. Although maritime shipping is relatively efficient per kilogram of product, the combination of long distances and large volumes still creates a noticeable climate and air quality effect.
The result
The question was: "What environmental damage do we prevent by not setting off fireworks for a year?" The answer is a concrete list of savings that directly contributes to a cleaner Netherlands and the achievement of environmental targets.
Through the national ban, we prevent annually:
- An enormous mountain of waste: Approx. 9 million kilos of paper, cardboard, and plastic that no longer ends up on the street or in nature.
- Toxic metals in our water and soil: We avoid the dispersal of over 170,000 kg of barium, 87,000 kg of copper, and 55,000 kg of strontium, and much more.
- Clean air: We eliminate a source responsible for nearly 5% of total annual fine dust emissions in the Netherlands.
- Greenhouse gases: We directly save over 600 tonnes of $CO_2$ emissions, plus the significant (but hidden) emissions from global production and transport.
Naturally, these figures are based on estimates. We have drawn from publicly available data for this, but the result is clear: the amount of pollution we save by no longer setting off consumer fireworks is very large. It provides a good picture of the gain we achieve for our living environment.
Do you really want to know the impact of a single rocket down to the decimal point? Then we would literally have to dissect the rocket. With a so-called 'Life Cycle Assessment' (LCA), we then map out the entire journey: from the mines where raw materials like copper and barium are extracted, to the factory and the transport across the world. Only then do you see the full footprint of that single bang in the sky.
Sources:
RIVM 2020: https://open.overheid.nl/documenten/ronl-5c42727c-3f6b-4f37-8f88-c284fe61afc3/pdf
Dutch government: https://www.emissieregistratie.nl/onderwerpen/fijnstofuitstoot-door-vuurwerk
Earth.org: https://earth.org/environmental-impact-of-fireworks/
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