This Holiday Season Give The Gift Of Less Waste

Eco Friendly and Creative Gifts

As the holidays approach us we are planning out gifts for all of our friends, family members, and co-workers. Giving and receiving gifts has become a huge tradition and has commercialized the holidays. We want to get gifts for everyone that is important to us but it can get costly, and it can also be hard to shop for some people. This holiday season, let's be creative with our gifts and give a little twist to the season of giving by giving things that keep on giving. 

With all the gifts and the wrappings we are also contributing to waste. Here are some ideas that will make everyone smile and will hurt your wallet and the environment a little less.

Upcycled or Recycled Gifts:

Make gifts out of materials that can be recycled or upcylced to make a whole new item. You can use the fabric of old clothes or blankets to make things like handbags, coasters, headbands etc. Handmade jewelry can also be made from a variety of different materials and objects.

Here are some ideas:

1. Cut up jeans, use sleeves from shirts or sweaters and make mug sleeves. Decorate the sleeves and personalize them with things like beads,pom-pons,yarn, etc, then slip them onto some mugs and gift each mug with packets of hot cocoa. 

    2. Bake or cook up some yummy treats and serve them up in a reusable container to cut down on            waste. This way you are giving two gifts in one, a yummy treat and a cute new container they can use over and over again!

3. Make handbags out of old clothes or fabric. Like the mug sleeves, use the material from clothes to create a cute handbag for a friend who loves artsy things from saturday markets. 

4. Flowers are also a great gift, and a common one too. Why not gift some seeds instead? Find some seeds of a pretty flower, or something useful like an aloe vera plant. This way the receiver gets to grow pretty flowers, which will be a gift that lasts them longer than a bouquet. An aloe vera plant gives them aloe vera, which is great for skin!

Be creative with your gift wrapping as well and avoid using gift wrap that will just end up in the trash!