|
 Is the excessive waste and pollution caused by the manufacture of extravagant gifts that people don’t want or need making you feel like foregoing the purchase of presents this Christmas? If so, that's no reason to become a Scrooge. Instead, why not try to be more eco-conscious in choosing your gifts?
There are many recycled and environmentally friendly products available that will allow you to spread the joy of the holiday season while going easy on the planet. Here are a just few of our favorites, many of which you can find in EcoHearth's Eco Shop.
Toys
The award-winning Green Toys company makes classic playthings from recycled and other environmentally friendly materials, primarily plastic milk jugs. Their minimal packaging is also 100% recyclable. Youngsters can even learn about the importance of recycling while playing with their $20.43 Recycle Truck.
Electronics
As well as reducing the environmental impact of sending batteries to landfills, the $29.99 La Crosse Technology BC-700 Alpha Power Battery Charger has four settings for power-efficient charging. The charge mode can power up NiCad and NiMH AA and AAA rechargeable batteries simultaneously. The discharge mode fully empties the batteries before charging them to prolong their life. The recharge mode discharges and recharges older batteries up to 20 times to give them extra life, and the test mode measures battery capacity.
Kitchen and Bath
Preserve Products offers ideal presents for cooks and new homeowners—or your own Christmas nibbles. It produces everything from screw-lid containers ($4.95) to cutlery ($5.95) all made from 100% recycled plastic. They also offer a range of personal-care products including packs of six toothbrushes for $16.14.
Aromatherapy
To lift spirits through the winter, Primavera creates organic and all natural essential oils, such as eucalyptus and bergamot, for the body and home, available from $6.59.
Fitness and Outdoors
Great for New Year’s-resolution-prompted exercise regimes, reusable water bottles also help reduce the amount of plastic sent to landfills. Ideal for lightweight packing, Platypus collapsible Sport Bottles are 100% free of BPA(Bisphenol A, which is potentially harmful) bags that take up a fifth of the space and weigh 80% less than an empty plastic bottle, available from $5.25.
Shoes
For the shoe-lover in your life, the Simple shoe company produces vegan-friendly footwear made from recycled, sustainable materials such as car tires. The Simple Women’s Satire Sneakers, for example, come in nine different colors, from $23.98, while the Simple Men's Sno-Tire Joe Curren Sneakers come in black or white, adorned with Joe Curren’s beach photos, from $25.58.
Babies
New arrivals can be kitted out in eco-friendly comfort with gDiapers’ hybrid diapers. Their slogan “Flush, compost or toss” says it all—these diapers provide a 100% biodegradable alternative to the 50 million disposable diapers sent to landfills daily. The gDiaper is a machine-washable, cotton ‘g pant’ with a reusable, waterproof liner that contains a decomposable diaper refill. Using breathable cotton instead of plastic also protects the baby’s skin. gDiaper Starter Kits are available from $39.99.
Handmade
The most original and unique present you could ever give is something homemade, as every creation is slightly different. To feed your imagination, Heidi Boyd’s eco-craft book Craftcycle: 100+ Earth-Friendly Projects and Ideas for Everyday Living, and Recycle, Recraft, Restyle by Susan Wasinger, show you how to turn everyday objects into beautiful and useful crafts, such as tin-can Christmas-tree decorations.
If you’re not feeling so creative, Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling handmade goods under 31 different categories.
Gift Wrap
There are many ways of disguising a gift without using commercial wrapping paper that adds to the destruction of rainforests. Gift bags are a clever form of reusable wrapping, while used newspapers and magazines add a quirky slant. Adhesive tape can also be avoided by tying packages with reusable string and ribbons.
Gifts That Give Back
Starting at just $25, Sierra Club's Sponsor a Wild Place allows you to sponsor a national park like Yosemite or the Grand Canyon in honor of a family member or friend, and the recipient receives a package with a stuffed animal that represents that park (i.e., a bear for Yosemite, an alligator for the Everglades, etc.), along with a photo of the park and information on how to help preserve it. 100% of the profits go to support the Sierra Club's work to protect the environment. It's a great gift for the budget-conscious giver because it's two gifts in one—you get to make your end-of-the-year donation to a good cause and get a cute gift for your child or other loved one at the same time. You can even choose to forgo the stuffed animal, which allows more money to go toward the cause and produces less future landfill.
Just as you give your mother a break on Mother’s Day by doing the household chores, the best gift you can give Mother Earth this Christmas is to save her extra work by giving gifts that reuse materials already in existence and those that minimize pollution and any strain on her resources. Give green this holiday season and you’ll be delighting both the recipient of your gift and the planet.
Additional resources:
Amazon Green
A Creative Giftwrap Alternative
EcoHearth's Eco Shop
 |
Subscribe to this comment's RSS feed
