Celebrate! It's a Plastic Free Christmas

My ultra-supportive sister is urging me to attempt a Plastic Free Christmas, and with her encouragement I think I'm going to try it. But I have to ask myself, what would a Plastic Free Christmas be like? Is it even possible? I suppose it's time for me to find out.

My plan is in the early stages of conception, but so far I intend to:
  • Make a special request to my family to avoid plastic when they're buying stuff for me. I'm considering indicating that plastic gift cards are okay, since using said gift certificates will allow me to make sure all the other stuff I get with them is plastic free.
  • Request that I receive no candy in my stocking, excluding bulk candy in paper bags or fine chocolate wrapped in paper
  • Avoid buying my family stuff made of plastic. This might be tough, but I'm gonna try.
  • Make homemade chocolate-covered pretzels for my co-workers again instead of buying presents.
  • Use newspaper and old packing paper to wrap presents, thus avoiding the plastic cellophane wrapping paper comes in. Actually, I think wrapping paper should be outlawed, but that's besides the point.
  • Avoid using tape for wrapping presents by experimenting with homemade glue (does anyone have a recipe they can recommend?)
Anyways, that's my plan so far. I'm probably going to annoy the heck out of my family with it, but, according to a somewhat annoying recent New York Times article, every family these days has an eco-grinch, so I guess that's going to have to be me.

Note: My sister has been eco-conscious and vocal about environmental issues for way longer than me, so I think she might actually deserve the title. We'll have to battle it out this Christmas :)

Comments

Even better than plastic gift cards - online gift certificates that don't produce any waste.
Chocolate covered pretzels sound yummy.
I'd love to see a battle of the eco-grinches.
Green Bean said…
You can do it! What a great idea.

Personally, I'm aiming for buying nothing new this Christmas - even for gifts which is fairly easy since the fam bought in (pun intended) to my white elephant only suggestion for the grown ups. They're balking at the one gift limit per kid per family but when their kids open up their consumable or used gift from little ol' me, I'm sure they'll be happy. Besides, Christmas is about a lot more than gifts.

Nice to hear every family has an eco-grinch this Christmas. I am certainly the one in my family. :)
Anonymous said…
You can wrap presents without any tape OR glue. There's the method of using ribbon to hold the wrapping paper together. But there's also a way to fold the paper into itself so that you don't even need ribbon.

Maybe I'll post some instructions online if I remember later.
Jeanne said…
Awesome, Beth! I would love to read your oragami-style posting, especially since I don't plan on buying any ribbon/decorations for my presents. It's only re-used paper for me this year.

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