Giving Green: Tips on Sustainable Gift-Giving

While the holiday season can bring us all together, it can also create a lot of waste. According to Stanford University,

Green Living Expert, Founder of Good Girl Gone Green and Green Junkie

Let’s start with gifts. We don’t have to go the traditional route when gift-giving—we can think outside the box, making an effort to buy more sustainable products from local merchants. (An additional benefit to buying locally—you’re more likely to get higher quality while also reducing the amount of waste you’re creating. It’s a win-win!)

Here are a few places to start:

Now that we have bought and chosen our gift, how do we wrap it sustainably? ??Traditional gift wrapping paper—metallic texture decorated with glitter, or with a waxy coating—is often used once and then discarded. And it is not recyclable. Most tissue paper is made with low-grade materials, which means, typically, that’s not recyclable either. Fortunately, tissue paper holds up year after year, so we can reuse it every holiday season—so don’t throw it away!

For sustainable gift wrapping, often the best choice is to search your home for items to repurpose before purchasing something new. Here are the best ways to make your packaging more sustainable, too:

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