Arg! So…I have been collecting all of my cardboard boxes and packing materials for months, stacking them in my bedroom and even then they take up half the floor space. For months, they have been cramping my room and blocking my way, causing me to shift them back and forth to get around the room or to constantly have to restack them because they toppled over after I accidentally bumped into them. Then, today, I felt I had accumulated enough to make posting them on the free section of Craigslist worth someone’s drive. So post them I did, and, since, I didn’t want people to gamble a drive if someone already claimed, I only made appointments one at a time. The first person didn’t show, so I started contacting others until another said he could come by tonight (so I didnt have to being boxes back inside). I wait for this guy for over 20 minutes, and he tells me he needs the boxes for moving, though I posted in my ad that I preferred to donate to a small business owner or nonprofit who would reuse the materials. So…he took everything, but it seems dubious that he’ll actually use the smaller boxes or packing paper, foam peanuts, air pillows, etc. And he didn’t come off as a particularly eco-conscious person, so I don’t even know if he’ll dispose of the materials appropriately after using them. So…basically…I feel like I went through a lot of inconvenience for maybe a subpar result. And I also don’t know anymore if it’s better to try to donate for reuse than it is to recycle if you don’t know how the person receiving the donation will dispose of them. *sigh* Maybe next time I will post on Yerdle or freecycle since those probably cater to a more eco-conscious niche population than does Craigslist, but right now I feel dejected and as though I failed despite much effort and inconvenience. :(

My family has a long tradition of using cloth bags made from Holiday fabric instead of wrapping paper. The drawstring is cloth or ribbon and “To/From” cards are punched from last years received Holiday cards. Added bonus…it makes gift wrapping a cinch for the men in the family :)

reuse them for next holiday, so you can safe your money to do so. if you can use them why not? Some ribbon still can be use and still many plastic item there could be something creative and more fun.

As far as wrapping gifts goes I have an end roll of newsprint from the local newspaper and I make my own wrapping paper by unrolling it in long sheets and stamping it using stamps that I make from styrofoam meat trays. I keep the stamp designs pretty simple, a star, a tree, a snowflake. It sounds a little neurotic now that I’ve typed it out and I’m looking at it in print but it’s kinda fun.

Love the idea of letting people you know that you prefer gifts of experiences or donations to charities. Also like the idea of re-using and making the plastics into an art project!

I am a big crafter and save a lot of plastic packaging to run through my die cut machine and colorize for cards. I save bubble wrap to apply paints and inks to canvases and cards etc…Gives great texture. Ribbons are recycled as well. Save all old gift cards to apply paints and gesso to canvases and cards..They are great scrappers. Enjoyed your article tremendously.

Just when I thought I’d gotten the message out to family & friends…I get a giant box of gourmet international cookies, each in its own little plastic sac…sigh…nothing to do but take one for the team and eat them, I guess!

Beth, in #2 above, the link to the ReUse Alliance doesn’t work – takes me to a secure log-in window…

To avoid driving around with 3 little kids in tow, I often call stores ahead of time with the UPC code to make sure they will allow me to exchange the unwanted gift. I have found that most cheap plastic toys come from Target or Walmart, at least in my area (No. Cal.). Then I buy whatever I normally buy at Target (7th gen cleaners, etc.) and Pyrex or Ball canning jars at Walmart with the money I get from the return, since these places rarely carry things for kids I actually want. If I think my kid should get something instead, or I want my child to actually receive some gift from the gift-giver, I’ll often look on Etsy for a toy I can get them instead. Sometimes I actually look for an equivalent toy (return doll with PVC-face for an all cloth doll) so that my kids can say “thanks for the doll” on the phone without the in-laws know the difference. I do worry about offending family if they find out I have returned most of their toys, but oh well. I told my husband he’s going to need to start being more forceful about asking for gift cards or experiential gifts (museum memberships), b/c dealing with all the unwanted toys sometimes kind of ruins Christmas for me — instead of being excited when opening gifts, I dread having to figure out what to do with all that stuff. Unfortunately, I’m a bit too much of a closet greeny to send out a manifesto.

We use reusable fabric bags for gifts but for gifts that come wrapped in paper, I am hoping to repurpose some as homemade cards next year, using the little pieces I can salvage after my kids’ opened the gifts. We always reuse bows, etc.

This is all stuff I can’t write on my own blog in case my in-laws actually decide to ever check it out!

For packing peanuts, air pillows, and large cardboard boxes, another idea is to collect a bunch and then post a Craigslist or Freecycle ad for moving supplies. Every time I’ve moved I’ve been able to collect a lot of free and used supplies this way and then I pass them on to another person after we’ve unpacked!

The last couple of years I have been very specific about my holiday wish list for our extended family grab bag, I list ONE thing only, a donation to Heifer international on my behalf, so far this has worked out well. Eventually the whole family will come to realize that I don’t want or need anything for myself for Christmas, I’m fully content with what I have already. We give all the kids movie ticket gift cards, which luckily for us are still printed on paper. I have to admit that the rest of the Christmas experience fills me with dread every year and my stomach churns in anticipation of the waste to come, I really do feel sick. I spend hours after trying to figure out how to carefully minimize the waste that is brought in, through no fault of our own, by as you say well meaning friends and family. I know I’m looked upon as a spoil sport with all my fussing over plastic and all other waste, but it doesn’t change my resolve. I’m mostly upset by seeing the next generation around me who have new born children, stay in denial about this issue. What I’d like to do this year is find a way to be involved on the political level if there are grassroots organizations that you know of who are looking to change our laws regarding plastic manufacturing and consumption. I think it’s the only way to speed up effective change, I’m willing to put my time into it. Let me know your thoughts

I have to keep them hidden because my cats will eat them up! How do you keep them from dissolving completely?

I usually take all my styrafoam peanuts, bubble wrap, and packing materials to the local mailing store but I also recycle some of the bubble wrap as “poor man’s dual pane windows”. I live in an older house with single pane windows and you can feel the cold coming through the glass. Spray the window with plain water, position the bubblewrap to the window (bubble side towards the glass) cutting the bubblewrap pieces to fit the window. It will “stick” through contact with the water and will stay for months or years. It’s amazing! The windows let in light but of course, you can’t see out so I usually use the bubblewrap in the bedrooms and bathrooms where it’s cold and an outside view isn’t so important and where lace curtains hide the plastic (although it really doesn’t look as bad as you’d imagine if you apply it carefully). I learned about this technique in a permaculture class on greenhouses and adapted the idea to a residential home. And of course, when you remove the bubble wrap in spring, you can still take it a mailing store if you want. It probably uses less plastic than all the styrafoam and packaging that come with new windows, which of course isn’t in my budget right now, plus it always arrives in the cold of the winter, just when those back bedrooms get chilly! And it’s free.