Christmas can be a tricky time to navigate when it comes to sustainability; it is a huge waste producing holiday but no one wants to be the grinch giving boring gifts. This becomes even trickier when you have kids in your life, so here are our tips to reduce your environmental footprint while also ticking items off their wishlists.
Don’t buy new
Children’s books are a great option to find second hand, many op shops will have classic books in great condition and if you’re lucky you might even find brand new books that are looking for a new home.
If you start looking in advance you can often find unwanted gifts for sale on secondhand marketplaces, they’re good as new and you will be giving them a new home where they will be used and enjoyed.
Give an experience
Sometimes it can be hard to get kids excited about sustainable alternatives so why not give them an experience instead. It makes for great quality time spent with them and almost never comes wrapped in plastic.
It could be as simple as a beach day with icecream included or you could get adventurous with activities like a visit to a tree ropes course.
Give them something that grows
From mushrooms to micro greens there are a heap of options available for at home grow kits this Christmas. Having recently grown oyster mushrooms ourselves, we can assure you the experience is sure to spark wonder and delight for kids and adults. Plus having grown it themselves may encourage your kids to try a new food!
Give gifts that can be recycled/ have recyclable packaging
If you’re going to give toys this Christmas why not pick brands who have created recycling solutions for their waste? L.O.L. Surprise! and Bunch O Balloons™ both have recycling programs available so you can make sure none of the waste ends up in landfills. Plus Bunch O Balloons™ stems & caps are now made from 100% certified recycled plastic!
You could even win a L.O.L Surprise! prize pack for the little one in your life! Check out our L.O.L. Surprise! Holiday Collection Competition for all the details.
Another great option is a colouring in book and some markers or pens. There are heaps of books available which are made from recycled paper and once the markers and pens are all used up they can be recycled through our Writing Instruments Recycling Program (you can also drop them at participating Officeworks stores).
Whatever you gift, please don’t wrap it
Australians use more than 150,000km of wrapping paper during Christmas, that’s enough to wrap around the Earth’s equator nearly four times! We can all take part in reducing this huge volume of waste destined for landfill by getting creative with our gifting.
You could use plain brown paper (which can be composted), wrap in newspaper, wrap in fabric or even just ask the recipient to close their eyes. You can also get creative with your kids and get them to decorate some fabric with paint, stamps or screen printing then use it to wrap their gifts, you can hang on to the fabric and use it again next Christmas!
TerraCycle News 