It's October 24th, which means you have exactly
two months to plan and prepare for Christmas!
This is probably an element of my personality only people close
to me know about, but I am passionate about sustainability and reducing waste. I
am not one of those people who tries to do a zero-waste year. That is only feasible
for healthy people, who have a decent income and plenty of extra time. They
also can't really have pets, because even though my dogs are on a raw food
diet, I can't bring home 30kgs of raw meat in paper bags.
However, I am a strong advocate for reducing consumerism
waste. Things like cheap clothes we wear a few times, or not at all, before throwing
away. Trinkets and nick-nacks that serve no purpose. Things that are unwanted, unneeded
and unpractical, but are given because we feel we need to give something.
In this blog post, I want to offer some solutions. Many of
them will be local to me, but hopefully you can extrapolate them out to where
you live—finding the same or similar items in your local area.
IDEA ONE – Be Honest
A great way to reduce waste and actually buy useful items is
to be honest with your family and friends about what you need. I think younger
generation are better at this than older ones. Older generations seem to find
asking for specific things very rude. So instead of helping with rent, or
buying the work socks you desperately need, they'll give you a $40 fairy costume
for your cat. I think we, as a society, need to get past this. If someone asks
you for something they need, and it’s a reasonable request, please get that.
They'll appreciate it and it won't go straight into landfill in January.
If you are asking for specific things, take the guesswork
out. Give your size and preferred colour. You can also make it fun. "Give
me a year's supply of my favourite brand of dishwashing detergent." is practical
and amusing.
IDEA TWO – Potted Plants
Please buy terra cotta pots. Terra cotta is just fired clay.
Its all natural, there is very little waste or chemicals—bar those required to
power the kiln they were cooked in. If cared for, it lasts thousands of years,
but if crushed up, its no different to rock. Broken terra cotta pots have
plenty of uses in the garden, including just being left on their side to house
frogs and lizards.
If you also buy seeds and grow them yourself for people, you
are reducing waste greatly. If you are going to buy seedlings in plastic pots,
ring around and see where you can donate the plastic pots so they can be
reused. Some nurseries will very happily take them back.
A lot of succulents and other plants grow from cuttings. So,
if you have a mature adult plant, you can produce endless baby plants for gift
giving. Now is a good time to start propagating for Christmas, so the plants
you hand over have a good root development and aren't going to die.
IDEA THREE – Biodegradable Toothbrushes
Did you know you can get biodegradable toothbrushes made of bamboo?
You can even just throw them in your compost when you are done with them. Did
you know every single plastic toothbrush you have ever used still exists? It's
in landfill or floating in the ocean right now. Not only that, but it will be
here for hundreds of years after you die. That's over 1000 toothbrushes per
person.
Assuming people use, on average, one toothbrush a month, 12
toothbrushes is a year's supply. If you gave everyone you knew 12 bamboo
toothbrushes every year, you could save thousands of plastic toothbrushes going
into landfill.
Many bamboo toothbrushes also come in cardboard packaging,
that is also biodegradable. You can order them online from places like Amazon,
Aliexpress and speciality stores. They range in cost from about $4 each, to
around 40c each and come in a range of colours.
IDEA FOUR – Hand Made, Unpackaged Soaps, Candles & Bath Bombs
Living on the sunshine coast, there is an endless supply of
soap and bath bomb makers around, and they stock all sorts of boutique stores
and market stalls near where I live. However even if you don't live in an area
like mine, most malls these days have a Lush, Dusk or other candle/soap store
that has unpackaged items, and sells them in paper bags.
I think its preferable to support a local artisan and buy
them right from the people who make them in their kitchen. However, make do
with what you have. The good thing about soaps, candles and bath bombs is that they
get used up and they are gone. If they are made with natural ingredients (no
plastic beads!) they cause no harm. However, they are still a lovely treat to use
and receive.
IDEA FOUR – Coconut & Wood Plates, Bowls & Chopping Boards
Coconut bowls are all the rage at the moment. They are
probably a more practical gift for the trendy Instagram people in your life. Or
the people who wish they were trendy Instagram people. If someone loves food or
cooking, wooden bowls, plates and chopping boards may be a fantastic, long used
and much-loved gift.
Skip this one for the friends and family who eat take away with
one hand and play computer games with the other.
IDEA FIVE – Jars of Preserved Foods
Again, I live on the Sunshine Coast, so I am surrounded by
boutique farms which produce their own preserves and sell them at local stalls
and stores. Everything from goat cheese, olives, dried tomatoes, garlic cloves,
more exotic jams and chutneys than I could poke a stick at.
In my favourite store, the Maleny Food co, which has QLD's
best ice cream, a fromagerie and a several shelves of exotic preserved goods,
there are always about a dozen things I want to buy. But I always tell myself
'next time'. Then I buy and ice cream, and $50 worth of buffalo cheese, and
next time never comes.
Again, this is a gift that is better for people who love to cook.
And its probably worth adding a small hand-written note, saying: 'This product
is tastiest if used within X months'. A lot of preserved food lasts forever. However,
that means some people save them forever! Products like expensive, virgin oils
are better used as soon as possible. After a few months they go stale.
Eat your preserves while they are fresh and full of life and
flavour.
IDEA SIX – Memberships, Tickets and Gift Cards
How about a twelve-month Audible membership? Or dancing
lessons? Or a twelve-month Netflix membership? Cooking lessons? Tickets to events?
Gift cards to and eco friendly store? Is there a memory you can have together? Can
you go scuba diving or horseback riding? This idea is particularly great for
kids. You can buy them a year of music lessons, or martial arts lessons. Anyone
who drives a lot will get a lot of use from an Audible membership.
If your friends have no time for classes and are always run
off their feet, would 20 hours of a maid service be welcome? How about 4 hours
of babysitting so they can go out together for once? If their yard is overrun,
can you hire them a gardener?
Think in terms of services, skills and experiences, not just
items.
So that's it! My suggested Christmas gift list. I am already
gathering my gifts for Christmas (pro tip, you're probably getting bamboo toothbrushes).
And if you start planning and ordering now, you should have everything in
plenty of time for Christmas, which will make things stress and guilt free.
If you don't celebrate Christmas, or Christmas is a bad time
for you, now is the right time to start planning so you will be busy over that
period. Make a list of things you want to fix, make and visit over December. Go
to the beach, go to the gym, get out in nature, declutter your house, learn to
cook some new things, try new restaurants, paint. Find a list of all the local
tourist attractions you've never been to and see them all. Tackle that pile of
books that you keep swearing you'll read. And, on Christmas day, even if you
don't want to, find someone hosting an orphan Christmas and spend the day with
them. Let other people feed and distract you.
And remember, try not to buy a bunch of crap that will end
up in landfill.
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