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Articles and Information
Green Gifts for the Holidays
by EarthTalk
Given the massive recall of toys contaminated with lead last year, let
alone all the other bad news about chemicals seeping out of just about
every other conceivable type of consumer item, it's no wonder that
people are nervous about what might be inside the wrapping paper this
next holiday season. Luckily, growing environmental concerns-and
consumer demand-means that plenty of safe and green-friendly items are
available for those willing to do a little more than just walk around
the closest shopping mall.
Article continues below
For kids' items, Oompa Toys (oompa.com) is hard to beat. The
Wisconsin-based company offers thousands of child- and Earth-safe
items. On Oompa's easy-to-use website you can buy products ranging
from toys, dollhouses and stuffed animals to learning games, musical
instruments and art supplies to kitchen play accessories, kids'
furniture and tricycles, many items made with organic or recycled
materials.
Another interesting online source for kids' toys is Washington-based
Earthentree (earthentree.com), which sells dozens of pull toys,
rattles, stackers and other goodies to stimulate young hands and
minds. All of their products are handcrafted by "fair trade" (fairly
compensated) artisans in India using sustainably harvested wood and
natural vegetable-based dyes. And Hazelnut Kids (hazelnutkids.com)
specializes in natural, earth-friendly wooden and organic cotton toys
for kids and babies, and even offers gift-wrapping with recycled and
recyclable paper.
For grown-up gifts, EcoArtware (eco-artware.com) sells a variety of
items made from recycled and natural materials, from bath and kitchen
accessories to pet products to jewelry, including many hand-made
items. Everybodygreen (everybodygreen.com) is another good source for
green-friendly jewelry. The company's No Plastic charm bracelets are
made with corn starch-based resin, natural herbal tea dye and recycled
brass. For those holiday parties you might be attending, wine
aficionados might appreciate a bottle of Boisset Family Estates'
Yellow Jersey pinot noir (yellowjerseywine.com), which comes from
France in a 100 percent recycled (and recyclable) plastic bottle.
Looking for fair trade arts and crafts? Gifts with Humanity
(giftswithhumanity.com) sells clothing, home décor, jewelry and more
from artists in Asia, Africa and Central and South America. Organic
Bug (organicbug.com) also sells fair trade items and other natural and
organic products from clothing to home décor items to travel
accessories. Other websites worth visiting for fair trade and/or
green-friendly gifts include peacefulvalleygreetings.com,
greenfeet.com, pristineplanetcom, nokiagreenstore.com, gaiam.com,
acacia.com and vivaterra.com. A simple Google search for "green
holiday gifts" will turn up many more.
Another approach to the holidays, of course, for the sake of lessening
one's footprint and tightening the belt in a downturned economy, is to
eschew traditional gift-giving in favor of donating to a local or
national environmental group in the name of a friend or loved one.
This can be accomplished by visiting the websites of your favorite
green groups and making your way to their "Donate" page, or by
visiting justgive.org or worldofgood.com (by eBay), both which
facilitate contributions to worthwhile charities
EarthTalk, presented by VegFamily in partnership with E/The Environmental Magazine, answers questions submitted by readers on a wide range of environmental topics-from recycling to rainforests and "from the global village to your backyard."
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