Eco-Friendly and Local Gifts
World Wildlife Fund, National Wildlife Federation, Nature Conservancy, The Sierra Club, and others allow you to adopt animals or buy gifts to benefit their organization and conservation.
Help your loved ones get outside this year by giving them a good reason to go! Some ideas include: membership in a hiking club, rock climbing lessons, a deluxe tune up for their bike, or maybe even that kayak they have always wanted to buy.
You can give all kinds of water- or energy-saving tech that’s fun to use and green. Learning thermostats or smart light switches can be a good choice for people who love gadgets.
How about a reusable bottle or thermos made by Klean Kanteen:
Think about other household items that friends and family use on a daily basis and look for reusable alternatives to the more commonly used disposable ones. Here are a couple of ideas to get you started: ziploc bags and dryer balls.
What about a soft and comfy T.S. Designs t-shirt made from organic cotton grown right here in North Carolina?
Most importantly, consider supporting local businesses by purchasing goods or gift cards for loved ones that live in our community:
Buff City Soap: Although technically a franchise, Buff City Soap Greenville is still a place worth checking out. They hand make their products daily which allows the consumers to have more transparency in what’s in their products. Furthermore, they opt for natural ingredients and have minimal packaging options which is perfect if you’re looking to reduce plastic consumption. Not to mention they smell amazing! Click here to checkout the Buff City Soap website.
Thrift Stores: Greenville has a ton of thrift stores in which you can find antique items, sweaters, sporting goods and more. Store’s like Restore Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army, Hope of Glory Ministries are great because they invest parts of their profits back into the community. However, there are also a ton of locally owned thrift shops you can explore to find that one of a kind item.
David’s Used Books & Records: Speaking of used gifts, checkout David’s huge selection of used books, records, and more at affordable costs. According to their website, you can purchase paperback copies at $1 and hardback copies for $2! They also have a collection of Antique books which you can’t always find online.
Why not give the gift of life this holiday season? Give someone a living plant and hope they can keep it that way. Opened in 1976 by an ECU alumnus, this local nursery has a bunch of items for your plant lovers! They sell holiday magnolias, houseplants, pottery, gift certificates and more. Click to visit the Plant and See website.
Farmers and Makers Market: Located on Dickinson Avenue, Farmers and Makers Market, has a collection of local vendors who sell everything from home baked goods, locally grown produce, art and more!
While you are out and about shopping, grab a cup of coffee at my friend’s new Backstage Coffee shop located inside the Dickinson Avenue Farmers and Makers Market:
By the Numbers
Here are some facts and figures about the holiday season. Hopefully, they will inspire you to reduce your negative impacts on the environment this year. You can start by considering some of the eco-friendly gifts suggested above or click on the links below for more sustainability tips and green ideas from around the web.
- According to the EPA, about 40% of all battery sales occur during the holiday season. Buy rechargeable batteries!
- 35% of Americans have an unused Christmas present collecting dust in their closet. It really is ok to re-gift.
- Americans throw away about 25% more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve than the rest of the year.
- Trash from holiday wrapping paper totals over 4 million tons each year. Wrap your gifts in used wrapping paper!
- 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold annually in the U.S. could fill an entire football field and require the harvesting of nearly 300,000 trees! This year, send e-cards instead.
- Each year, 50 million Christmas trees are purchased in the U.S. Of those, about 30 million go to the landfill. Since live trees are still the most sustainable option, chip and mulch the tree or re-plant it in your yard instead of tossing it out.
- If every American family wrapped just 3 presents in reused materials instead of newly bought wrapping paper, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.
- Over a 30-day period, lighting 500 traditional holiday lights will cost you about $18.00 while the same number of LED lights costs only $0.19. As an added bonus, if one of the LED lights burns out the rest of the strand will stay lit.
- Styrofoam accounts for up to 25% of the waste in our landfills. And when it’s burned, Styrofoam releases over 90 different toxins including dioxin, a known carcinogen. Please use a different type of packing material for gifts this year!
- If every family in the U.S. reused two feet of holiday ribbon, it would save 38,000 miles of ribbon – enough to tie a bow around the entire planet