Our actions impact our surroundings, from our use of plastics, to protecting the Earth’s ecosystem. A new wave of change is slowly gaining tract to take care of our environment. Regretfully, weddings are not exactly green or environmentally friendly.

So how did throwing rice at the bride and groom become a tradition? Traditionally, tossing rice at weddings meant blessing the couple with fertility and prosperity.

So how did this tradition turn into thinking that birds explode if they eat the rice that is thrown? It’s not very clear where this legend was born; however, in 1985 a law was proposed in Connecticut state to prevent tossing rice at weddings, as the rice eaten by wild birds would expand and burst open their digestive tract and kill them.

Many birds such as shorebirds eat rice as part of their normal diet and it helps them to keep their weight up during the winter months.  While white rice increases in volume when moisture is introduced, the rice will not have negative effects on the birds. The rice is broken down and passed through a bird’s digestive system very quickly and does not give it a chance to expand.

Birdseed expands much more than rice does, so technically birds’ stomachs should be exploding when the birds eat seeds not rice.

It is perfectly safe to throw rice at people’s weddings, or your own, as you will not be killing any birds. However, try to stay away from throwing plastic at the bride and groom. There are plenty of alternatives: throwing rice, flower petals or leaves.