You don’t want the gift you get someone else to end up in the garbage, but you also have to think about the impact of the manufacturing process, the materials, and more.
Whether you’re eco-conscious or your loved one is, you can both feel good about the gift ideas on this list.
Buy jewelry made with reclaimed gold
Jewelry is a popular gift to give during the holiday season. There are a lot of options out there. You can choose from different kinds of jewelry, different styles of jewelry, and different gemstones. Have you thought about where the rough for that jewelry comes from?
You may have heard of ethical diamonds or conflict-free diamonds, but where the gold comes from matters too. The mining process is hard on the earth, and surprisingly, precious metals are being thrown away all the time. That’s because gold is commonly used in electronics!
Look for jewelry made with reclaimed gold. Brilliant Earth is just one of the many companies out there that is making beautiful jewelry out of recycled materials.
Clothing made with natural materials
Clothing is also a popular Christmas gift. With fast fashion a global epidemic, we have to think carefully about what we give to our loved ones.
You want to get them something they want to wear, but you also have to think about what it’s made of. Synthetic materials create microplastics that get washed into the environment. Avoid polyester and nylon when buying clothes this holiday season.
Instead, purchase clothing made out of natural materials. Wool, cotton, and silk are luxurious gifts, and they are completely biodegradable.
Glass food storage containers
Looking for a more practical gift? It may sound strange at first glance, but glass food storage containers make great gifts.
Most cupboards are full of plastic containers, but they get damaged easily, are thrown away quickly, and can affect your food when placed in the microwave.
Don’t want to hand over a pack of boring glass storage containers as a gift? Put something inside them! Everyone would appreciate getting containers that are full of cookies, soup, and other food items!
Reusable, portable, everyday items
We live in a throwaway culture. Encourage your friends and family to reuse items that are often thrown away by gifting reusable, useful, and portable items.
A portable utensil set is easy to keep in a purse or bag and will eliminate the need to use plastic utensils and straws.
Don’t forget about eco-friendly reversible cup sleeves. They’re great for coffee drinkers, and they make great stocking stuffers.
]]>It's easy to feel a sense of helplessness. It can seem like the people of the world don’t really care about fixing this horrible plastic problem that we have created. And, when no one else is doing anything about the problem, it seems silly to be just one person carrying reusable bags into the grocery store.
It’s true that there’s a lot more to do to get our plastic problem under control, but you might be surprised at just how much progress society has already made.
Here are five reasons to have hope that we’ll take care of our plastic problem sooner rather than later.
Plastic bag bans and taxes are becoming the norm
Single use plastic bags are devastating to the environment. Not only do they look like jellyfish floating around in the ocean, which causes them to be eaten by sea turtles, they’re clogging our landfills. They’re such a huge problem because they get used for just a few minutes to a few hours, then then most get thrown in the garbage, even though they are recyclable.
The good news is that plastic bag bans and taxes are becoming the norm. Multiple states, including California, Hawaii, and New York have banned plastic bags. Multiple cities have banned or enacted fees on plastic bags too, including Chicago, Seattle, and Boston. In 2019, state lawmakers have introduced at least 95 bills related to plastic bags, so they are getting the attention they deserve.
Plastic straws are getting harder to find
Like plastic bags, plastic straws make life much more convenient. Unlike plastic bags, plastic straws cannot be recycled. That’s what makes them such an insidious problem.
Companies are taking notice of this problem and doing something about it. Starbucks will be getting rid of all its straws by 2020, while McDonalds now uses paper straws in their UK restaurants.
State and city governments are doing things to reduce or eliminate plastic straw waste too. California has taken steps to reduce straw waste, while Seattle not only bans plastic straws, they have banned all plastic utensils from businesses.
Scotland has outlawed plastic-stemmed cotton buds
Plastic you probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about is getting attention too. Like plastic straws, there’s no way to recycle those little plastic stems from cotton bud swabs. It’s the norm to see them floating in waterways and washed up on beaches.
Johnson and Johnson has replaced their plastic buds with paper ones in Europe, while Scotland has banned them altogether. The supermarket chain Waitrose estimates to have eliminated 21 tons of plastic with this one policy alone.
Marriot is giving up those little plastic bottles of shampoo
It’s fun to collect those little bottles of shampoo and lotion from hotels, but what happens to the bottles when you’re done using them? Like most things, they end up in the trash, and there’s a lot of those little bottles to go around!
Marriot is banning those little plastic bottles from their hotel chains by the end of 2020. That's a big deal because it's the world's largest hotel chain. It estimates that it will be able to eliminate 500 million small bottles from entering the landfill every year.
Zero-waste grocery stores are catching on
There’s a lot of plastic at the grocery store. In an effort to get rid of all that plastic packaging, some grocery stores are zero-waste, and they’re gaining in popularity. Instead of purchasing items in plastic containers, you bring your own reusable containers. It’s a lot like the health food section of your local grocery store where you can buy items in bulk, except you can buy in bulk throughout the entire grocery store!
Remember when milk was delivered to your door in reusable glass bottles? If you don’t, your grandparents might. There’s a resurgence in this service too, which greatly reduces the use of single use plastic milk bottles!
Any one of these efforts isn’t enough on their own, but combined, and with other policies and trends that are on the horizon, we really are making a difference. Keep doing your part by keeping a reusable straw, reusable canvas bags, and a reusable cup sleeve in your purse. Every little bit really does help!
]]>There’s a lot of eco-friendly inspiration out there. The internet is full of people who are doing some amazing things, all in the name of reducing waste and being easier on our environment and the planet.
Searching the internet and browsing social media are great ways to get inspiration for your own life, but all that searching can have unintended consequences—you can end up feeling guilty.
Feeling guilty that you didn’t use cloth diapers with your baby. Feeling guilty that you still use sandwich bags to take snacks to work. Feeling guilty that you left your reusable water bottle at home and have to buy a plastic bottle from the gas station.
There’s always more you can do, but that doesn’t mean you can’t feel good about what you are doing. You’re having a bigger impact on the environment than you think.
Small changes can make a big difference
Don’t downplay the difference your small changes are making to the environment. For example, did you know the average American family brings home almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags every year? Did you also know that the production of 14 plastic bags uses enough fuel to drive one mile? By cutting plastic bags out of your life and carrying reusable bags instead, you can save the equivalent of over 107 gallons of gas every year!
It’s also important to recognize the fact that small changes are always easier to make than big ones. Lauren Singer may be famous for her zero-waste lifestyle, but that doesn’t mean you can go completely waste-free overnight. Instead, adopt small changes one step at a time. Bring a reusable straw with you so you never have to use a plastic straw again, even if it means you’re still putting your produce in a plastic bag at the grocery store.
Recognize there are some things you just can’t do
Striving for a zero-waste lifestyle is great, but that doesn’t mean it’s right for everyone. There may be some things you wish you could do, but you just can’t.
One example is cloth diapers. The average family uses about 7 diapers each day. Over the course of 2 years or more, you can keep over 5,000 diapers out of the landfill!
That’s great! Except, purchasing cloth diapers can cost hundreds of dollars, and by the time you spend money on water, electricity, and the detergent needed to clean them, you don’t really save any money. Not to mention, the time it takes to implement the use of cloth diapers can be enormous! For busy families, and especially those that send their kids to daycare, cleaning, storing, and the frequency of diaper changing that is needed make cloth diapers impossible, no matter how eco-friendly they are.
Just because someone is doing more than you to lessen their environmental impact doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be proud of the positive impact you’re making, no matter how small. If everyone did just one more thing to reduce waste, even if it’s using a reusable cup holder instead of a disposable one, our planet would be a lot cleaner and happier!
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We can’t always blame the kids. Sometimes it’s our own fault. Have you ever grabbed a coffee at the gas station or the coffee shop and realized only after you entered your car that you forgot to pick up a cup sleeve? Now you either have to burn your hand to take a sip, or you have to wait for your drink to become lukewarm. Yuck!
It’s moments like these that encouraged In2TheNest to create reusable cup sleeves.
]]>At first glance, these products don’t seem like a big deal. We’re definitely not going to claim that you have to have an earbud organizer or a key hook to survive, but you’ll find that surviving everyday life is a lot easier when you use products like these.
A reusable cup sleeve
If you’re a parent, you know, among your many jobs, you’re a holder of things. Those things often include drinks. Little hands can find cups too hot or too cold, which means you’re stuck carrying the cup in addition to whatever else you happen to be carrying.
We can’t always blame the kids. Sometimes it’s our own fault. Have you ever grabbed a coffee at the gas station or the coffee shop and realized only after you entered your car that you forgot to pick up a cup sleeve? Now you either have to burn your hand to take a sip, or you have to wait for your drink to become lukewarm. Yuck!
It’s moments like these that encouraged In2TheNest to create reusable cup sleeves.
Instead of hunting down napkins or relying on your ability to remember to ask for a cup sleeve before you leave the coffee shop, you can make sure you always have a way to insulate your hands from hot and cold drinks with a reusable cup sleeve. Its compact size means that it takes up almost no room in your bag, so you always have it with you. With a cute design, you may even be able to get the kids to hold onto their own drinks!
Reusable cup sleeves are eco-friendly
You want the items you use on a day-to-day basis to make life more convenient, and we want to make sure we create products that are convenient too, but convenience isn’t all you care about.
Sustainability is a responsibility that we all have to our planet. As consumers, it’s our job to source items that are easy on the planet. It’s a manufacturer’s job to supply those kinds of products.
Any kind of reusable cup sleeve is more eco-friendly than a disposable product, but In2TheNest takes the sustainability of our products even further. Our fabric is made out of 100% GOTS Certified Organic Cotton, and recycled plastic bottles are used to insulate our sleeves. We even use water-based pigments and dyes in the printing of our designs!
Use your stylish, reusable cup sleeves on disposable cold and hot cups, glass cups, stainless steel cups, reusable water bottles, and more. Simply throw your sleeve in the washing machine and lay it flat to dry. A reusable cup sleeve from In2TheNest really couldn’t be more convenient!
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