Ten "Buy/Don't Buy" Rules for Holiday Shopping
You don't need to buy clothes made from hemp or yet another compact fluorescent lightbulb to put a green spin on your holiday shopping. Just consider the following:
1) Don't buy anything that requires a throwaway battery. Batteries leak cadmium, lead and other heavy metals when they're thrown away. They usually come wrapped in plastic and cardboard, creating more trash as soon as you buy them. Plus, you have to keep replacing them; in some cases, the cost of batteries over the life of a product ends up amounting to more than the product itself. Solution? Avoid toys, gadgets and appliances that require short-lived, throwaway batteries. If you must give a battery-powered gift, choose rechargeable batteries and the recharger to go with it. One of my favorites is a reuseable AAA battery you can recharge in the USB port of your computer.
2) Buy solar- or hand-powered. Among your options: hand-cranked flashlights, coffee grinders, blenders and juicers. Vintage-style razors with replaceable razor blades. A French-press coffee pot. More interested in solar? Try solar-powered chargersfor cell phones, flash drives, and radios.
3) Don't buy synthetic fragrances and air fresheners. Ironically, even though these products are supposed to make things smell better, they actually make it more difficult for many people to breathe, especially those who suffer from asthma or other respiratory problems. Want your home to waft Christmas? Simmer a small pot of water, cloves and cinnamon sticks over the stove. Need to smell better yourself? Dab a drop of essential oil from your favorite flower (mine is lavender) behind each ear and on the inside of each wrist.
4) Buy phthalate-free. Phthalates are often the building blocks for synthetic fragrances. They're also found in nail polish and many other personal care products. The downside? They're nasty chemicals considered a reproductive hazard in Europe and the state of California. Luckily, you can find a wonderful variety of phthalate-free nail polishes, perfumes, make-up and other personal care products in stores like Whole Foods and the Body Shop or online here.
5) Don't buy wrapping paper, even if it's recycled. Why does it matter? Because Americans throw away 25% more trash during the Thanksgiving to New Year's holiday period than at any other time of year, reports the Stanford Recycling Center. The extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week! Instead, if every family reused just two feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet. Plus, if every American family wrapped just 3 presents in re-used materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.
Click here for the rest of the list. And please leave a comment if you have other "rules" you follow.
After years of burning paraffin-based candles that left nasty soot residue on her walls and pictures, Big Green Purse reader Laureen of Basking Ridge, New Jersey stumbled upon soy candles in a little shop on Long Island. She's also found soy candles in Hallmark shops in her local mall and at Home Depot. What does she like about them?
Organic Greenery - Start with your backyard, but available online, too.
