Simply Green Giving
Talk about the paper chase. Despite accounting for only 5 percent of the world’s population, Americans devour 30 percent of the global paper supply. Our paper consumption swells by another 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s as thousands of cards are squeezed into shiny mail slots—and hundreds of presents are bedecked and beribboned, only to be shredded into confetti by greedy, eager fingers. Yet 71 percent of our paper is produced from timber harvested from ecologically valuable and biologically diverse forest habitats. (Think the recent heat wave’s been a real doozy? Imagine the bullets we’d be sweating without the carbon-absorbing superpowers of our trees.)
Due for release in September, Simply Green Giving: Create Beautiful and Organic Wrappings, Tags, and Gifts from Everyday Materials by Danny Seo is a handy volume of over 50 eco-friendly and sustainable gift-wrapping ideas—making a purely decorative and ephemeral indulgence a waste-free one, without looking like you ripped the funny pages from this morning’s paper as an eleventh-hour afterthought. (Or at least without some sleight of hand to make it appear like you did it on purpose, you crafty fox!)
Seo’s simple yet chic ideas range from the slightly obvious (bandannas; scarves) to the ingenious (alphabet tiles in soap for gift tags; VHS tape as ribbon; a package fashioned from leftover “Admit One” tickets). I particularly like his suggestion of hitting up your neighborhood cigar shop for empty cigar boxes handcrafted from wood, and I’ve been building a tiny stash of my own for stuffing with handmade treasures for Christmas giving (thanks to my local hookup.) Don’t scoff at curbside pickup, either, one of my favorite places to gather free bits and bobs. People throw away the darndest things.
Seo read my mind when he suggests inspiring older kids by buying them memberships to environmental or animal-protection organizations—for the beastie-loving hub’s birthday this year, I gave him a membership to the Wildlife Conservation Society, which grants him (and a guest, preferably me) free admission to any of New York City’s zoos and aquariums. No wrapping, awkward silences, or future landfillers involved. And because the money goes to international conservation projects, it’s one of those gifts, as hokey as it sounds, that keep on giving. (Tip: To make sure your organization is legit, or at least running its operations efficiently, check it against Charity Navigator first.)
