PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Kermit the Frog may have said it best all those years ago: “It’s not easy being green.” Especially during the holiday shopping season when consumerism runs rampant.
Complicating it all, this year there are more empty shelves out there, and “out of stock” pops up online more often.
If you can find what you’re shopping for, shipping delays could make the whole endeavor moot, and exponentially expand that gift’s carbon footprint.
It's time to upcycle some holiday traditions.
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The Canadian platform Green Story measures the environmental impact of products to help brands offset their carbon footprint.
Research from their recent environmental study finds that if this holiday season we all bought one used item instead of a brand new one, we’d collectively save:
- 4.5 billion pounds of carbon dioxide - equivalents, like planting 66 million trees!
- 25 billion gallons of water, or 250 trillion bottles of drinking water!
- 11 billion kilowatt-hours of energy, which could power a million homes for a year!
Over-buying over-packaged and over-marketed goods are putting us on Mother Earth’s “naughty” list. Getting on her “nice” list with just one green change to your shopping habits could help you SAVE some green too. Choose one or all from the ideas below:
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1) Second-hand stores and sites can be a creative and resource-sparing solution for your last-minute shopping stress.
A recent survey by online thrift store ThredUp and GlobalData finds the stigma around giving a “used” or recycled gift is fading fast: 66% of recipients are okay with a secondhand gift, and the number is even higher, 72%, among Generation Z giftees.
2) Vintage, flea market, or thrift store purchases can be more interesting and meaningful, not to mention less of a burden on the planet.
A beautifully wrapped heirloom, art piece or other family memento with a written story about it could be a new treasure for a young relative with a respect for family history.
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3) Straight-up re-gifting can be dicey, especially if you inadvertently bestow it on the person who gave it to you!
So better to swap it on your local “Buy Nothing” Facebook group, where new or gently used items are freely offered and gratefully repurposed.
4) Don’t cancel out your good intentions with unsustainable gift wrap. If you don’t have a stash of salvaged gift bags, reusable gift wrap can be the most creative swag under the swag!
Think paper bags, greenery clipped from your yard, tied with natural fiber (and biodegradable) string. Glitter on wrapping paper renders it unrecyclable, and it behaves like plastic microbeads in the environment.
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5) Give experiences or virtual gifts.
Tinggly packages experiences all over the world that your recipient can choose from when you buy them a voucher, with a percentage of each going to sustainable projects that remove plastics from the environment.
For example, a two-night stay at one of over 100 hotels in Philadelphia is worth the removal of 11lbs (5kg) of plastics.
Consider reloadable gift cards or tickets, or a created-by-you-certificate for an activity together.
Instead of physical books, you can support your local bookstore with a subscription to the audiobook service libro.fm. There are 19 participating Philly-area independent bookstores that get a percentage of your purchase.
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