Poppies Persuasive Speech

It is time to trash the poppy.

Now, I’m not saying we should get rid of it altogether, I’m saying there needs to a revamp. Manufacturers should either get rid of the flocking or turn to paper poppies. Since 1996, Dominion Regalia, a company which specializes in making awards and identification products, has held the contract to produce 16-18 million poppy pins for Canadians. That’s about one for every 2 people in Canada.

The proper procedure with poppies is to donate to the Royal Canadian Legion, who according to their website “offer programs and services for a wide variety of groups on both local and national levels” to veterans and their families. The donator then gets a poppy, hopefully, wears it until Remembrance Day, and then they are

Eliminating the flocking will cut these costs as it is an extra component made from very small fibre particles. These particles are then adhered to the plastic so not only will manufacturers get of the cost of the flocking they’ll get rid of the cost of the glue. The removal of these things would also make the poppies recyclable so at least they could be put to another use.

Now, what would making them out of paper fix? To begin with it would make the poppies recyclable, or at the very least would allow them to decompose if they fell to the ground. Second, paper is a lot harder to maintain over the course of a year, so it will mean less reusing of poppies and more donations to the Royal Canadian Legion. There also has to be consideration towards the symbolism of the poppies left on the graves, decomposing into the earth with the solider they were given to. An image which could be considered fairly poetic, by some.

Both Great Britain and the United States use paper poppies in their respective veterans’ campaigns. Both places have a far larger population than Canada, meaning production and distribution should not pose a problem. An added bonus, of course, would be if they used recycled paper, as it would allow more trees to remain