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We’ve all been there – three bridal and two baby showers in a month, a graduation or two, and that thank you gift you somehow feel responsible sending your landlord’s cousin’s wife who once brought up your mail. Oftentimes, people are at a loss on how to keep giving without stepping on their green conscience. (Or at least for the purpose of this blog, they are.) After all, between Thanksgiving and New Years Day, the United States alone produces up to 5 million extra tons of trash. So the next time you’re trying to figure out how to give a gift without contributing to blatant consumerism, turn to these tips.

First, you can avoid the trap of trappings altogether. Offer your sister-in-law a night of babysitting; get those cute newlyweds a gift certificate to your favorite restaurant; give your best friend a month’s worth of free gardening, especially during the summer heat. If you do decide to go material, think about picking up a gift at a thrift shop or flea market. You’ll find a lot of well-constructed, high-quality merchandise – and it’s easy to add your new personal touch to any old-school item. Then there’s always the option to buy local and to avoid adding shipping emissions to your carbon footprint. And finally, there’s always hand-made gifts that can become friend or family heirlooms, like a knitted scarf or painted picture frame. (Or if you’re hopelessly uncrafty like me, you can try anyway and pass off your glue and glitter monstrosity as “It’s the thought that counts.”)

So now that you have the gift, how can you wrap it up without adding to the week’s recyclables? In high school, I was big on taking pictures and art from magazines and cobbling them together into a homemade wrapping paper. (Okay, so I was once a little crafty….once.) You can also wrap something in a scarf or, my personal favorite; use the ultimate reusable wrapping – the gift bag. Someone should stick a GPS device on one of those bags and see how far it travels from household to household.

So next time you’re in a gift quandary, just remember these simple tips and give green!