6 Ways to Have a Sustainable Holiday Season

Depending on what type of item you are looking for, there are different sustainable features to pay attention to! The biggest thing that makes an item sustainable is USABILITY. One of the biggest issues with the holidays is buying in excess or buying just to buy. All of the qualities of a product are important, but a gift that is practical and will not be thrown away is the best gift you can give (and get).

For almost all products, it is important to look for products that are made without palm oil or made with sustainably sourced palm oil. Look for items that have the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certification stamp and do your research on where the oil is sourced from! Items that do not contain palm oil likely contain other oils, which are usually not as sustainable to grow as palm oil. Palm oil has a high yield, a quick-growing rate, and supports economies in regions it is grown sustainably, so other oils are not always the answer. Regardless of the type of oil, do your research on the brand to make sure they are sourcing sustainably.

Wood and paper used in products is also something to be on the lookout for. Ideally, paper or wood products that can be alternatively made with bamboo are going to be your best option. Bamboo is actually a type of grass and is the fastest growing plant in the world, sometimes growing more than 30-inches per day. If sustainably produced and harvested bamboo is not an alternative, look for products that have been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The FSC ensures that the trees harvested for that product came from a responsibly managed forest. 

Another good logo to keep an eye out for is the Fair Trade Certified stamp! From food and beverages to clothing and houseware, products that are Fair Trade Certified have communities and the environment in mind. Fair Trade Certified products have been produced ethically by communities who reap the economic benefits of production by being fairly compensated. Natural resources have been grown without clearing land or burning forests and contribute to the overall welfare of the environment. 

Sustainably produced palm oil, sustainably harvested wood, and ethically sourced materials are all things to keep in the forefront of your mind while you begin holiday shopping! You can also look for organizations that have packaging-free products, sustainable shipping methods, are made from recycled materials, or give back to conservation organizations. The qualifications of what makes an item sustainable are not black and white and it can be challenging to truly find a sustainable gift, but a step in the right direction is better than standing still.

Holiday shopping this year will likely look a little different than it has in years past. Given the global pandemic, I certainly don’t plan on spending my afternoons at the mall and will have to resort to more digital methods to supply most of my holiday generosity. The issue with this is the carbon footprint of shipping and our “on-demand” lifestyles. Many times when we want or need something, we just hop online and place our 2-day shipping orders and then we do the same thing three days later and three days after that, and so on. Each shipment requires packaging (often plastic) and transportation, which takes energy and produces emissions. However, since we may not be able to do our normal in-store shopping this year, we may be stuck with no other option.

Finding companies and brands that have moved to plastic-free packaging or carbon-neutral shipping is not that hard, and we have a few favorites. There are thousands of brands who share the same mission of providing high-quality products while conserving the environment, sourcing responsibly, and producing less waste. 

I can’t stress enough how much I dislike the obligatory gift. I’m sure many of us have been in situations buying a gift for someone when we don’t actually know what they want or would use, but we feel obligated to buy them a gift anyway. This is how knickknacks accumulate and end up in the landfill next year when you’re spring cleaning. 

If you are buying a gift for someone because you know and love them and want to get them a gift, be creative! Think about their hobbies, the things they love, and the items they use frequently, and then think about alternative products they could be using to be less wasteful. Gifts like this are perfect because, in the long run, you will likely save them money for no longer having to buy their single-use items and those single-use items will no longer be heading to the landfill. Don’t be afraid to make something from scratch or DIY something cute for their home either. I have personally had success with a poorly-handmade scarf for my grandparents and a garden sign I made from scrap wood, old paint, and some sealer for my parents. You can make so many homemade gifts by repurposing things around your home, you just have to think outside the box. 

For those obligatory gifts, I cannot stress this enough: usability, usability, usability. If you’re going to buy a gift for someone without being able to make it personal, focus on things that everyone uses and their sustainable alternatives. You could get them wax wraps to use in the kitchen or get them a plastic-free shampoo bar to try! Produce bags also make a great obligatory gift because they can be used for more than just produce. 

So, you’ve done it. You planned ahead, you’ve got the gifts, it’s time to wrap. Growing up, my family used traditional, sparkly, waxy, overpriced wrapping paper. As a kid I loved it; we all got to pick out our favorite designs and no one ever told me how many forests were destroyed to produce it or that you couldn’t recycle it! Then, as I got older, I began to get so frustrated with the idea of wrapping paper. I was watching people buy rolls of plain, brown paper to wrap their gifts when those same people were throwing away the brown crumpled up paper that stuffs so many of our packages. If we were more aware of our behaviors that have become so normalized we would be more able to make sustainable changes. 

Old newspapers make fantastic wrapping paper. Yes, it is a little thin, but as long as you work carefully, it works just fine. This is my favorite method of wrapping because you can hand-select the story or section of the newspaper to wrap each gift or even go as far as highlighting different words that describe the gift receiver. Even if you don’t get the newspaper, I’m sure one of your friends or your friend’s parents or your neighbors does and hopefully would be willing to share a few pages. If you get a paper-based tape, you can even recycle your wrapping after the big unveiling. 

That brown packaging paper I mentioned before also makes a handy wrapping paper. For some companies, you can request to have plastic-free shipping and you will usually get some recyclable packaging paper instead. I keep a gift bag near my holiday decorations and whenever I get packaging paper, I neatly fold it up and store it in the gift bag. By the time the holidays roll around, I’m sure many of us would have more than enough paper to wrap our gifts. 

As someone who loves to decorate for the holidays, this is one that I often struggle with. The one time of the year I allow knickknacks to clutter my house is when they are little snowmen and decorative pine cones around the holidays. From wreaths to ornaments to lawn decor, most decorations we purchase from the store are made of plastic and are often produced overseas. 

One of the best ways to fill your home with decorations is to visit the second-hand store and get rid of that second-hand stigma. The thrift store is one of my favorite places to visit just before or after the holidays when people are cleaning out their decoration supplies. I love the thrift store to look for candle holders, wreaths, and little knickknacks for my shelves. All of these items at the second-hand shop could have ended up in a landfill, but they are getting an opportunity at a new life! The same little glittery tree you would buy new for $12 will probably cost you $3 and you have now reduced your consumption thus reducing the demand for the product and the natural resources necessary to create that product. 

Decorating sustainably can also encourage us to reduce and reuse before we recycle. After all, that is a process. You can make amazing decorations with items lying around your house or in your yard. If you have twine and some sticks, you can make yourself an adorable hanging Christmas tree. I have already seen tons of DIY dried orange slices all over my Pintrest feed this year and, wow, there are so many charming things you can create with pine cones. Get on Pintrest and get creative, decorating for the holidays doesn't have to mean a trip to the store!

I think a lot of us can agree that the holidays wouldn’t be the same without holiday lights lining our streets. Unfortunately, that is another holiday tradition contributing to the destruction of our planet, but it doesn’t have to be! Solar-powered lights are a perfect alternative to traditional plug-in lights and come in many of the same styles. If you can’t go solar-powered, LED lights are more efficient than incandescent lights and those laser projectors are becoming more and more popular! Instead of decorating your tree out front, see what it looks like with a laser projector or colored light shining up at it!

My family sent a holiday card every year, though they rarely made them to the receiver by the time the holidays actually hit. Taking the picture was a big project every year that my siblings and I all dreaded yet somehow became a cherished holiday memory. Giving and receiving holiday cards is one of the best ways to keep up with friends and family you don’t get to see or talk to often, but they also happen to be incredibly wasteful. A classic greeting card is one thing, at least those can be recycled, but these days, most people send customized photo collages printed on photo paper, which cannot be recycled. Most people receive their cards and hang onto them until after the holidays, at which time they are disposed of.

There are lots of alternatives to a photo collage holiday card, including a standard greeting card. There are several brands of cards that are made from recycled paper and even give back to the environment with their proceeds. There are also greeting cards that are made of recycled paper and seeds that can be planted after they have been enjoyed by the recipient. And, last but not least, we have the ever simple e-card. There are so many templates these days that sending a digital card still can be custom and fabulous.