Happy Holidays Blog Readers!
Thank you, Fiona, for taking over the blog last week, another stellar outing! While Fiona’s blog centered on sustainable holiday tree choices, I’m going to look at reducing holiday season waste.
First off, why is there always so much waste? I think it’s generally the packaging that produces the most waste, so try giving gifts like a certificate to cook someone a meal in their home, or perhaps more non-material gifts like a certificate to a movie, or a concert? Did you know that Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd) is bringing the Wall to Portland’s Rose Garden this Spring? Plenty of people wouldn’t mind getting tickets to that as a gift, I assure you!
If you absolutely must give a wrapped gift, there are sustainable ways to pull this off. Perhaps you could wrap gifts in a fabric, and then finish it off it with a nice (and reusable) drawstring bag—that’s a whole lot classier than some chintzy paper gift wrap. Another thing about said chintzy wrapping paper; sure it’s easy, but the dyes used on this type of paper deem it unrecyclable, or at best, barely recyclable–and the dyes pollute our rivers! Do we really need to be polluting rivers? Remember back in the day when the Cuyahoga River got so polluted that it caught fire? 
Perhaps for wrapping smaller items you could use old calendar photos, or maybe outdated maps, or even a bandana!
Finally, and this is an easy one, don’t forget to recycle all that cardboard!
Hope you have a good one!
-Mark