Sustainable gift-giving should be a part of the holiday season

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December may come last, but it ranks first as the liveliest and most anticipated time of the year. It’s the season of holiday cheers, good food and drinks, and gift-giving. It’s finally that time you get to spend your whole year’s worth of savings for a quick vacation out of town or big shopping hauls from every sale starting from Black Friday to Boxing Day. 

The whole festive glow gives us connection to the people around us and makes us feel more generous with twice the intensity as usual. It feels incomplete if we don’t give something to our loved ones and to people whom we want to show our appreciation to. But the act of gift-giving should not sacrifice the progress we have in saving our environment. 

In 2017, Zero Waste Canada estimated that Canadians alone generate 540,000 tonnes of waste from wrapping paper each year, the equivalent weight of 100,000 elephants. That amount of paper waste ends up in landfills, where it isn’t reused. 

Using paper products creatively is a more sustainable approach in the holidays and cutting back unnecessary wastes that take space in our bins. It is cost-effective, pleasing to look at, and much more rewarding because you still have that element of surprise while being mindful of the environment. 

Personally, I love customizing gifts and their packaging because it’s a perfect expression of appreciation towards people you care about. Every fold and intricate detail shows the thought you put into it. And it can be done with what you already have. 

If you have old newspapers or magazines at home, it’s a great alternative to gift-wrap paper because of its size and quality. You can spread it out or overlap on each other to cover up the whole surface of your present. It can also be used to do origami or paper embellishments to add flair with your gift. If the gift is awkward to wrap like a bike, you can make a paper ribbon instead and stick on the surface. 

Another option is reusing the paper bags and boxes you get from all your shopping hauls. Whether it is a plain brown bag or has a logo, it doesn’t matter. What matters is what you put in the bag. A personal touch I always do is to put a handwritten note of holiday greetings and a short message about why I picked this certain gift. 

Because giving presents is not really a competition of how much an item costs, it’s the story behind it. The next time you get into your shopping mode, don’t just throw the bags away. Save and store them until it’s time to use it for the holidays or for other special occasions. Your online shopping applies to this as well, reuse that box. 

We can take advantage of technology too. There are free electronic greeting cards that allow you to customize the design, animation, and note to your liking. You can even put a video greeting “inside” the card, which is a game-changer. You can send it to your loved ones anytime anywhere without wasting any paper that can contribute to pollution. 

Many websites offer a variety of gift cards that can come with your greeting, which you only pay for the value of the gift card itself while their services remain free to use. If you want to think beyond electronic greeting cards, you might as well splurge on experiences that can make people happy like concert tickets of their favorite band or vacation deals out of town. 

Having that sustainable mindset while shopping or wrapping your holiday presents can make a great difference, not only in making people feel special and appreciated, but also doing our responsibility to the environment.