Well, the eggnog is in the stores, I find myself avoiding eye contact with smiling people ringing bells, and most of the people I see are still at that point where holiday cheer hasn’t yet turned to holiday panic. Yep, it still must be early December.
Of course the beauty of early December is that it isn’t yet too late to purchase eco-friendly gifts for our friends and loved ones. Here are three keys to eco-shopping:
- Go consumable – Consumable gifts – like yummy treats, cheese assortments, smoked meats and wine – are nearly always appreciated and generally have a small impact on the environment. When you give something consumable, the recipient consumes it and it’s gone with usually just a small amount of trash and recyclables left over. The gift doesn’t consume energy for years, take up space in a closet, or complicate anyone’s life. It’s just consumed with a smile. You can use your creativity to pick out just the right mixture of edibles from our local stores, orchards, and wineries. Give a taste of Morgan Hill this year and your gift will be a hit.
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Gift an experience – Purchasing tickets for entertainment and recreational amenities is another great way to give a “waste-less” gift. The South County abounds with opportunities including movie passes, theater memberships, Playhouse tickets, Gilroy Gardens passes, and Aquatics Center memberships. If you widen your search to the entire South Bay, the ticketing opportunities multiply rapidly.
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Give the gift of charity – What do you buy for the person who has everything? Buy them absolutely nothing – but let them know that you care about them by making a donation in their name. The past year has certainly provided us with many national and international tragedies that we can contribute to. If you’d like to keep your donations local, consider contributing to our major local nonprofit social services organization, Community Solutions.
Remember that where you shop also matters. The closer you are to home when you make your purchases, the less gas you used to get there. Shop Morgan Hill and you’ll help our local economy and our local environment.
In addition, it doesn’t make much sense to wrap your eco-cool gift with in an eco-uncool manner. Think outside of the box (or the paper roll) and consider wrapping things with:
- Scarves, handkerchiefs or bandannas.
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Old posters and maps.
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Pages from a child’s coloring book taped together (especially nice for relatives who would enjoy the artwork).
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Old sheet music.
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Newspapers (foreign newspapers are great).
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Last year’s holiday paper (press with warm iron if wrinkled).
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Wallpaper scraps.
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Home-sewn cloth bags.
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Fabric scraps.
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Pictures or advertisements from magazines and catalogs.
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Sunday comic pages.
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A present in a present (for example, a hat in a matching scarf, jewelry in a wooden box, cookies in a reusable tin or cookie jar, barbecue grill utensils or picnic supplies in a tablecloth, kitchen gifts in towels or all-purpose cloths).
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A plain box decorated with leftover glitter, paint, markers, etc.
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A cake pan, basket or a wooden box.
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Reusable decorative bags.
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A “Hollywood box:” individually wrap or decorate the top and bottom of a box with a separate lid. Encourage the recipient to reuse the box.
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Purchase wrapping paper made from recycled paper.
(Thanks to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for the above list)
Eco-fact of the week: You, yes you, have the power to gift creatively. One eco-creative idea is to turn your trash and recyclables into gifts. Wait, wait, don’t stop reading, this is cool stuff. The fine people of Sonoma County have a web page that describes nifty, and heck thrifty too, ways to make gifts using discarded materials to make gifts. Consider this:
Holiday candle holder – Remove all labels from a small jar, such as a baby food jar. Using old holiday cards, cut pictures into sizes small enough to fit on the jar. Glue the pictures to the jar and put a rubber band around the jar until the glue dries. Paint glue over the entire outside of the jar, then sprinkle on salt to make it sparkle. Let dry and put a small candle inside.
Go to http://www.recyclenow.org/
o_wastereduction_xmas02.html to learn more.
Eco-Web site of the week: My favorite agency in the federal government has developed a page on reducing holiday waste. Visit http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/specials/funfacts/winter.htm for some great tips.
Anthony Eulo is a program administrator for the City of Morgan Hill who prefers to give the gift of charity whenever possible. He welcomes your questions, comments, and thoughts and can be reached at
779-7247 or en*****@mo********.gov.
