Joss paper is an integral and important part of Chinese funerary and worship practices with great cultural significance. Mostly produced from either bamboo or recycled paper, joss paper has adapted its form to meet the evolving material desire of the people. However, one of the main ongoing national concerns in China is the air pollution due to the drastic increase in population as well as emission of carbon dioxide. The ritual of burning joss paper is practiced repeatedly: at the funeral and each anniversary for the deceased, on the 1st and 15th day of the lunar months, and during the Qing Ming festival in April and the Hungry Ghost festival in August. Due to the recurring nature of the practice, the significance of its negative contribution to air quality can no longer go unnoticed. With this in mind, China, especially in its major cities, faces the dilemma between finding an alternative to the tradition and halting the practice as a whole.
The practice of burning joss paper offerings is a shared ritual between the two most popular body disposal choices: ground burial and cremation. Regardless of how the body is handled, the family would purchase stacks of joss paper and leave them in the furnace to burn to ashes. The traditional custom of paying respect to the ancestors through paper offerings shows that the Chinese culture not only believes in afterlife, but also in the ability to communicate with the ones in afterlife. On top of that, the act of offering material goods to the deceased demonstrates the faith in the power of impact that the deceased has on the living world. In a word, the Chinese belief agrees that the deceased continues to exist, only in a different dimension, after they arrive at the underworld to be judged and either be sent to heaven or remain in the underworld. Sentimentally, the act of burning joss paper is way for the family to take care of the decease after they leave this world and enter the underworld; the family supplies the deceased with what they consider as useful essentials for the afterlife. Therefore, joss paper serves as a symbol and a medium for communication and connection between the family and their ancestors. As a result of such cultural significance, joss paper offerings continue to play an important role in the Chinese funeral and worship rituals.
As a result of the continuing and evolving practice of burning joss paper as an offering, the environment has been directly affected through measurable elements such as the chemical composition of rainwater and concentration of pollutant particulate matters. The correlation between the burning of joss paper and its environmental effect is reflected through the data collected on the change of air quality. For example, one report from The Straits Times shows that higher concentrations of metals are observed during the Hungry Ghost festival, when joss paper is burned on a large scale over a one-month period (Tan). Among the metals with increased concentration in rainwater and air samples, elements such as zinc and calcium are on the top of the list, with a climb as high and as drastic as 60% when compared to the mean of the other months in the same year (Khezri). The direct cause of such high increase of calcium composition is due to the fact that it is one of the highest metal contents in joss paper. As a consequence of the large amount of flame and smoke from joss paper combustion, the concentration of particulate matter in the air rises, which is a direct sign of the consequence of burning joss paper. Comparatively, the change of chemical composition is more of an indirect measure as rainwater aids in removing gases and particulates from the air. As a matter of fact, the composition of the rainwater as a result of human activities would then again act to neutralize the atmosphere, for example, acidic rain would act to dissolve the traces of metal in the atmosphere (Khezri). Therefore, it is necessary to include both the change in rainwater composition and the increase of metal concentration in the air, as the two data sets are impacted by one another. Additionally, monitoring the concentration of heavy metals in certain plants demonstrates the impact of increased metal particulates in the air and proves the absorption of such metallic elements by living organisms (Hsueh).