It seems like there is a gift-giving holiday every month of the year. Before I have even recovered from Christmas, I am reminded Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. When you add in birthdays, housewarmings, new babies, teacher appreciation… the cost to your wallet and our planet adds up pretty fast. Sustainable gift giving can help reduce those costs without giving up gifts all together.
I love giving people gifts, it brings me joy to share with others. It is a rare occasion that someone comes to visit and doesn’t leave with something. But I’m not made of money and buying new items for every gift creates so much waste. Before we look at sustainable gift giving, let’s look at how purchasing new items for gifts adds to Climate Change.
How Does Buying New Gifts Add To Climate Change?
- Packaging – New items usually come with lots of packaging, mostly plastic, that will be added to a landfill.
- Car Trips – Even if you walk to the store to purchase your gift, that item has often been on several truck, boat and/or plane rides just to get to the store.
- New Materials – Production of new packaging and products creates a large carbon footprint, especially when you realize many of those new items end up in a landfill without ever being used.
Does this mean buying new gifts is bad and makes you a terrible person who hates our planet? Absolutely not. But the more we choose sustainable options, the better off we will all be.
“Perfection is the enemy of progress.”
– Winston Churchill
Do Your Shopping At Thrift Stores
Shopping at Thrift stores, garage sales or online venues like marketplace and local groups is a great way to start sustainable gift giving. You can often find new-in-box items for a fraction of the cost. Maybe the packaging is a little damaged? Re-package it into a gift basket using eco-friendly materials.
As a parent, I can tell you the joy that I feel seeing my child open a gift that doesn’t require me to fight to open plastic that is glued and sealed in such an unnecessarily infuriating way is…. priceless. Even better if it doesn’t require batteries.
Best Thrift Store Finds For Sustainable Gift Giving
- Games and Puzzles – Puzzles are rarely done more than once before they are donated.
- Books – Thrift stores and garage sales are full of books. Pair a cookbook with a few ingredients and vintage tea towel for a beautiful and sustainable gift. Combine a children’s book with a cute stuffed animal (so many at the thrift store!)
- Mugs and reusable tumblers – Browse the mug section and you are sure to find one that is perfect for someone on your list. Add a gift card to your local coffee shop!
- Art Supplies – You can easily put together a basket of art supplies from thrift store finds for the artist in your life.
Handmade Gifts For Sustainable Gift Giving
I love handmade gifts. I find the process of creating something for someone else extremely fulfilling and when I receive a handmade gift I know there was a lot of time and thought involved.
- Soap – Making soap from scratch can be intimidating for a beginner and it takes a long time to cure. You can purchase blocks of melt and pour soap, some reusable silicone soap molds (buy used!) and have soaps for gifts in under an hour.
- Food Gifts – Homemade jams and jellies make wonderful gifts. Dry soup and cookie mixes, herbal teas and extracts.
- Jewelry & Shiny Things – Buy beads secondhand, find vintage costume jewelry in the thrift store and create your own jewelry, keychains, ornaments and more.
- Art – Paintings, writings, cross-stitch and more. I could write a book on handmade gifts, the sky is the limit.
Experiences For Sustainable Gift Giving
Experiences make a great sustainable gift. You can avoid gifting more “stuff” and focus on memories instead.
Some ideas for experience gifts might be:
- A special camping trip
- Cooking Classes
- Art classes
Donations For Sustainable Gift Giving
Sustainable gift-giving could be in the form of a donation in the person’s name to a cause that means a lot to them.
Volunteer to help a local cause together.
Gift Cards For Sustainable Gift Giving
Giving gift cards can often feel a little bland, but they can be a great sustainable gift and many people appreciate being able to pick things out for themselves. Allowing people to choose their own gifts is a great way to reduce waste.
Introduce family and friends to businesses that use sustainable practices by giving gift cards to those businesses.
Sustainable Gift Wrapping
Earth911 estimates that approximately 4.6 million lbs. of wrapping paper is produced in the U.S. each year, and that about 2.3 million pounds ends its life in landfills.
Consider reusable gift bags, fabric wrapping or up-cycled wrapping. Remember when gifts were commonly wrapped in the comics section of the newspaper? Do more things like that.
However you choose to give, I hope that you’ll consider some of these sustainable gift giving ideas.