5 Simple Ways to Shrink Your Holiday Carbon Footprint
Whether you have already finished your shopping or still need to squeeze it in, here are 5 ways to share some planet-positive love with a smaller side of carbon pollution.
- Nature Memberships
If you want to provide a sustainable, yet meaningful, gift to your loved ones this holiday season, consider giving them the gift of nature! Purchase a ticket or membership to a local garden, nature center, or conservation group. Not only does this option reduce waste during the holidays, but connecting with nature has been found to elevate mood, improve mental health, and enhance overall cognition.
What other gift can do all of that?
2. Local Business Gift Cards
Is gift giving not your specialty (*slowly raises hand*)? Consider purchasing a gift card to support a local business within your loved one’s community. This option is especially great because the pressure is taken off of you to make the perfect choice. But most importantly, gift cards can help reduce waste.
By choosing their own gift, the recipient is less likely to return the item back to the store or throw it away, and more likely to get something perfect for them.
3. Returnable Gifts
Let’s be real, we’ve all received gifts that didn’t quite fit our taste or lifestyle. This situation is bound to occur and there are gentle ways to make sure it doesn’t have to add to our waste stream. Include a receipt with your gift to ensure the recipient has flexibility to exchange the item for a more optimal choice.
One word of caution: Before buying the gift, learn the brand’s return policy to ensure they don’t throw away returned items (unfortunately, this is a common problem in retail).
4. Recycled Holiday Cards
Going sustainable does not mean sacrificing the holiday spirit! Instead of sending out regular holiday cards this year, opt for recycled materials instead. Paper Culture provides eco-friendly cards that use 100% post-consumer recycled content. Additionally, they plant a tree with every order to help offset their carbon footprint (over one million trees planted so far). Now that is some planet-friendly holiday love!
5. Recyclable / Reusable Wrapping
What is the one of the most wasteful things about the holidays? Wrapping paper. About 2.3 million pounds of plastic-lined or embellished gift wrap is sent to the landfill each year in the US. But this doesn’t have to be the case! Instead, you can use recyclable or reusable materials, such as the Wrappily and Wrappr gift wrap options available at Earth Hero. Whether fully recyclable or reusable there are beautiful ways to add a finishing touch to your gift without adding more volume to our landfills or incinerators.
Have you already incorporated some of these gift ideas? Or are you especially excited to try one out? Let us know!