If you’ve been striving to embrace an eco-friendly lifestyle, there is no need to let the holidays put a damper on your progress. Choosing sustainable gifts is a great way to make a positive impact this holiday season, and stay true to your eco-efforts.
Giving environmentally friendly presents doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. Check out these five gift swaps that will help conserve the planet, and get you labelled as a fantastic eco gift giver too!
Trendy Kitchen Accessories
Each year trendy kitchen gadgets come out and they instantly become a must-have gift for the season. However, the issue with these hot ticket items is that often they only get used a few times before getting shoved to the back of a cupboard.
Sustainable Swap: Eco-Friendly Accessories
Unless your recipient has explicitly stated they want the trendy kitchen accessory, skip it and go for something that could help make their kitchen more eco-friendly, such as an indoor compost bin, or maybe alternatives for single-use plastics. This may include a personalised reusable water bottle, a set of steel straws, beeswax wraps with a fun pattern, a stylish waxed linen lunch bag, or a set of colourful reusable fabric bags. Want to gift a bigger item? You can always find a small basket made from natural fibres and create a gift basket with sustainable items.
Plastic Wrapped Bath and Body Products
They may smell heavenly and they are a go-to gift, but remember these products often have ‘fragrance’ listed as an ingredient which can hide a multitude of toxins, some of which are hormone disruptors. The plastic waste bath and beauty products produce is a big part of our plastic pollution problem. Remember, plastic isn’t infinity recyclable as it can only get down-cycled since it loses quality every time it goes through the recycling process. And that is without considering only 9% of plastic even gets recycled.
Sustainable Swap: Package-Free Beauty Products
Look for products that forgo plastic either for cardboard packing, glass containers, or no packaging at all. Better yet you can make your own with recipes on the Green Goddess blog. Some ideas for gifts in this category include natural soaps, shampoo bars, face creams in glass, sun screen in tins, natural deodorants in tins, and bath bombs.
For an easy natural eco gift grab a glass jar and then go bulk shopping for some Epsom salt or buy online here. All you need to do is mix the salt with essentials oils or dried herbs to create a luxurious bath soak!
Mass Produced Clothing
From socks to scarves, the holidays are no stranger to gifting clothing. However, before you reach for a sweater for your best friend or a tie for Dad, consider where you are buying the clothing and what your money is supporting.
second hand dress from Kind Thriftz
Sustainable Swap: Small Batch Clothing or second hand shopping
Look for clothing brands that are transparent about their manufacturing process, material sourcing, and ethics. You should aim to support companies that are actively implementing ways to reduce their eco-footprint.
One easy way to do this is to shop small this season and look to companies that craft clothing in small batches, such as a local business with their own small fashion line or a seller that crochets or knits. Small businesses are genuinely thankful for each purchase and your money will go toward supporting someone’s passion or livelihood.
By shopping small, there is minimal worry that your purchase is funding unfair labor practices. Need another reason to shop small? Handmade clothing is often better quality than mass-produced products—so the recipient can enjoy their gift even longer. Bonus points if you can find a company that works with recycled textiles or ethically-sourced, natural materials such as bamboo, flax linen, or wool.
Check out Kind Thriftz for pre-loved vintage, retro, designer and high quality items ready to be loved again or head to your local second hand clothing shop. If you are a whizz with a sewing machine making new items from old is a great eco option.
Packaged Sweets
Who can resist sweet treats during the holidays? This year, you can skip the packaging, but keep the deliciousness with this simple swap.
Sustainable Swap: Homemade Goods
Don’t worry if you aren’t much of a baker. No one said you have to be the one making these treats—unless you want to, of course! Try bringing a container to a local bakery and getting some treats there, then place them in a reusable bag or wrap them in in some beeswax wrap for easy gifting (it will be like a double gift).
Another option that doesn’t include the oven is to create cookie jars. All you need to do is bulk buy the dry ingredients for a cookie recipe and layer it in a jar. Leave instructions for the rest of the recipe so the recipient knows what wet ingredients they have to mix in and what temperature to bake them. This idea also works great with brownies, hot chocolate mix, and DIY trail mix.
Plastic Toys
It is no secret that the holidays are filled with toys. Luckily, you can make these fun gifts a bit less wasteful with a few easy swaps.
Sustainable Swap: Wooden Toys or Quality Toys
Wooden toys are particularly great for younger kids and are far more sustainable—and longer-lasting—compared to their plastic counterparts. You can find wooden trains, blocks, cars, etc. Most toys were made of wood before plastic became commonplace, so while this isn’t a new idea, it is one we should re-embrace.
Check out NZ Made Riley&Gray Activity Boards: https://greengoddess.co.nz/riley-gray-activity-boards/
If your child has an extensive wish list with a lot of toys on it, consider choosing one big item on the list that you know they will get good use out of. In addition to this, you may want to subscribe to a toy library. This helps keep a rotation of toys flowing through your home without a large investment and you don’t have to worry about your child losing interest or outgrowing toys.
To find a toy library in New Zealand click here https://www.toylibrary.co.nz/find-a-toy-library.html
Want to skip the toys altogether and go for a zero waste gift option? Gift an experience. This could include tickets to a nature park or a family trip somewhere. The memories that result from these adventures outlast most toys and as a bonus, this type of gift can help you bond as a family.
Bonus – Gift Wrap
To finish off your sustainable present, don’t forget to use zero waste gift wrapping. Try wrapping a gift in a scarf that doubles as an extra gift, kraft paper decorated in twine and greenery, a reusable grocery bag, or up-cycle a paper grocery bag.
Eco gift wrapping ideas: https://greengoddess.co.nz/eco-christmas-wrapping-ideas/
There are many ways to make this holiday season kinder to the planet and choosing sustainable gifts is a great place to start. However, remember that the most eco-friendly gift is none-at-all. We aren’t saying you have to be a Grinch but try only to gift items that people will actually use. You will not only be touted as an amazing gift giver this way, but you will also be contributing to a healthier planet.
Happy Holidays!
This article was sent in by Olivia.
About The Author: Katie Brooks
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