Giving in Green - Great Green Holiday Tips...

In the short weeks between Thanksgiving and New Years Day, household waste in the United States skyrockets...by 1 million TONS!  That is a ton of extra trash, and most of that probably winds up in landfills.  As you can probably imagine, a huge portion of that ton comes from giftwrap, and packaging.  Greening up your gifts is simple, and it can make an enormous difference in reducing that load on our landfills.  What's even better is that it can actually save you some GREEN!

Try any or all of these green giving solutions...

1.  Green Wrap2 - Wrap it in a Green Bag!  Double points for this one!  You're reducing waste, saving money AND encouraging someone else to go green.  The delighted recipient can re-use the Green Bag over and over again in the future.  You'll be planting a seed where one might not have grown.  Green Bags are inexpensive and you can get them for less than you'd spend on a cute holiday themed bag (that's just going to get thrown away).  Try http://www.ecobags.com/Our_Products/The_GreenBag.  And please remember to bring your green bags when doing your holiday shopping!!!

2.  Re-Use, Re-Use, Re-Use - Re-Use!  You can re-use just about any kind of paper as gift wrap...I've been using the Sunday Comics as wrapping paper for years...it gives the package character ;)  You can also use the business section for that Stock Broker Uncle, or the classifieds for that ever-jobless cousin...the possibilities are endless with this one.  Some other great ideas are maps, brown paper bags with a nice pretty bow or branches from your tree, some of the countless drawings by your children, holiday catalogs or magazines, last years calendar, etc.  Another thing that is great to do is if someone gives you a gift in a pretty holiday themed bag...save it...and re-use it!

3.  Use Recycled Wrapping Paper - Wrap it Up Right!  If you must have the cute holiday themed paper and gift bags try to find some that is/are recycled.  You can easily shop for that online, try any of these links or Google "recycled gift wrap"
http://paporganics.com/
http://www.fishlipspaperdesigns.com/index.html
http://www.papermojo.com/green_living.html
http://www.importica.com/GiftWrap/StoreGiftWrap/default.aspx
htmlhttp://www.catgen.com/ecopapel/EN/100002.html

4.  Give Green Travel!!! - You wont have to wrap anything at all!  Triple points!!!!  Book any trip at our Green Travel Hub and it doubles as a donation to a green group and thats something we can all feel good about.  You can even book with a green hotel, rent a hybrid car, and offset that carbon footprint.  Plus everyone loves a vacation!!!

What are you doing to green up your gift giving this year???

SeeYa @ The Hub
~Melissa~