Have you ever thought about how sustainable your gift ideas and giving habits are?
I have compiled a sustainable gift guide and tips for wrapping your gifts, to ensure that your Christmas can bring cheer to others as well as help the environment.
Sustainable gift ideas with Sophie
A reusable keepcup or drink bottle from Frank Green.
Frank Green is an Australian sustainable food and drink container company. Their cups and bottles are a very colourful and aesthetic way of keeping your beverages hot or cold.
Sustainable body and self-care products.
Body and self-care products, like shampoo and soaps, now come in reusable, compostable packaging, or even, with no packaging at all! Scalp and body bars and refillable shampoos are a great option for Christmas presents. You can buy these kinds of products at health and wellness stores or Aesop.
A plant or seeds.
Plants are a great Christmas gift for someone who cares about the environment. You can grow plants for consumption or as a hobby. Plants also help to clean our air and make any home or garden look lovely.
A Rocketbook.
Rocketbook is a sustainable company that make notebooks which you can reuse. You can rub out the text that you write down as it all gets saved to apples’ cloud. Rocketbooks help to reduce the amount of paper waste that is created yearly.
A product made from hemp material.
Hemp is a fibre which is similar to a rough textured linen. Hemp is more sustainable than other fibres as it needs four times less water than cotton to grow. You can buy hemp bags, clothing and bed sheets.
A Banksia Pod aroma product.
Banksia Pod is an Australian brand that sustainably sources natural Banksia Grandis seed pods to create oil diffusers. Banksias take in oil through their pores, creating a lovely long lasting scent.
The most sustainable gift is a handmade gift.
You can make lovely gifts at Christmas time which can be very sustainably made. Some handmade gift ideas include, baking a Christmas cake or gingerbread, cocktail kits or a photo collage.
Keeping the surprise element
Wrapping your gifts does not need to create a lot of waste.
You can wrap gifts in sustainable materials, like brown paper, to further help the environment at Christmas time. Bees wax wraps are reusable and can be used to wrap presents. You can wrap gifts in cloth too! Vinnies and other op shops have second-hand material which can be a great option for wrapping gifts. Finally, you could try making your own paper. You could paint a design on a pre-used piece of paper to make some lovely festive gift wrap.
Waste less, stress less
Christmas time is about giving, so you can also give back to our environment by being more sustainable. Have a think about if you will use a gift multiple times before you purchase it. A gift is not sustainable, even if it is environmentally conscious, if it is not used multiple times.
Our environment will thank us if we continue to make changes, so give sustainably this Christmas as every change that we make helps our Earth.
Written by Sophie Watson
