Environmental Enlightenment #17 (Giving Green Gifts)

I'm making an effort to make ALL aspects of my life more environmentally friendly and this includes giving gifts. The goal is to be able to a) find something the person will like and b) have it be in line with my environmental values. Another part of giving green gifts involves the wrapping paper. This past Christmas 2010 I "knot wrapped" all of my Christmas gifts in order to avoid wasting wrapping paper. I discovered "knot wrapping" at Lush (they will "knot wrap" gifts in the store when asked) which is based on the Japanese tradition of Furoshiki. 



Instead of using wrapping paper the gifts are wrapped in a piece of fabric. The size of the fabric will depend on the size of the gift being wrapped and there many websites that provide "Furoshiki techniques" for different sized boxes and gifts. The fabric can then be reused by the person receiving the gift in order to wrap another gift! Here are some of my gifts from last Christmas...

Besides the wrapping being environmentally friendly I'm also trying to make more eco-minded choices when it comes to the gift itself. So for Father's Day this year I'm bought my dad a reusable coffee filter. He drinks coffee every day so I know it's something that he can use and it will save on paper waste! I went with the Mr. Coffee brand which I found at Target.

Hopefully this works out for my dad. It would be great if he could save on using a paper coffee filter everyday! Next up is my sister's birthday... what to get... what to get...