Letters to the Editor
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Stupid feel good liberal altruists with more money than brains
Gee I hope those mittens were recycled by child labor in Equador, that way your vortex of cognitive dissonance would suck you all down the recycling black hole in space time.
Do you like my recycled wallpaper? Yeah I had it flown over yesterday and it's going in the downstairs bar of my 10,000 sq ft house.
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Is this *really* green?!?
Which is the most green Christmas present? If you picked *none* of these, you're absolutely correct.
It's a pretty misguided idea to think that *more* consumption will actually help the environment, and most of these just seem like greenwashing to sooth guilty consciences instead of actual techniques to solve environmental problems. For example, even recycled paper requires energy to produce, ship, and dispose, no matter how hip and glamorous the end result is. And just because something is made out of organic hemp and cotton doesn't mean that it has no impact on natural resources.
Why don't we actually try looking to vintage stores or thrift shops for presents? Donate your time and money to worthwhile causes? Build a composter? True environmentalism requires real change, not just superficial fixes.
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I'd expect Salon to be a little more original
Guess the author did not get the memo - buying more crap nobody wants is NOT going green, no matter how organic, how fair-traded, how recycled the material is. The only suggestions I can respect is the community supported agriculture (CSA) subscription. Come on Salon, please be more original. I don't get paid to write, and I can come up with better ideas than some random handbags. If you really really want to treat your loved ones, how about local museum membership? a cleaning service with non-toxic cleaners, yoga lesson. Seriously, going with the flow to recommend "green" crap is so passé.
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(Ahem...)
Good old Used Rubber USA has been doing pretty much the same thing as Alchemy since 1984, here in San Francisco. If you're a REAL librul, you'll check out UR, the company was started by a woman artist 21 years before the Seattle hipster dude came up with the same idea. You sure the Alchemy guy really came up with the idea on his own, or maybe just recycled it? No matter.
http://www.usedrubberusa.com/
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Reusable Cloth Gift Bags
A little startled about all the vitriol, as long as people are going to be buying presents, and they are, any of these suggestions are better than anything at the mall or the big box. Another good idea is reusable cloth gift bags, check out the link:
http://walkeastwood.org/?p=235
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A good idea for a follow-up article
During the holiday season and particularly towards the very end of the tax year, folks often want to make a last-minute contribution to a 501(c)(3) organization. Salon, why don't you run a story on some of the more unusual and compelling ones to which to contribute, with an eye towards eco-friendliness?
Here are a couple that I think are particularly neat:
http://www.self.org
http:www.jewishworldwatch.org (scroll down and look for "solar cooker project" on the left side of the screen. This one helps the women of Darfur).
While you're at it, can you explain this whole "carbon offset" business and give us your best recommendations as to where we should purchase them, if we even should?
That would be a heck of a lot more useful, to me anyway, than another run-down of supposedly "green" gifts.
By the way, you know what my parents used to use for wrapping paper when I was a little kid and they didn't have much money? The Sunday funnies. Mom saved them up for months prior to Christmas for this very purpose. If you want to be eco-friendly, why not try that instead of this overpriced soy-ink/elephant dung nonsense?
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Any budget gifts?
Nice article, too bad they couldn't recommend anything for the majority of people in the country on a budget. The only thing I could afford would be to wrap the $12 chain bracelet in the $4 wrapping paper. Who the heck spends $120/yard on fabric or $56 on a pair of mittens?!?! No one I know.
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Do. Not. Want.
And if the friend you’re buying for is really green they don’t either. And I’m not a scrooge! I love the holidays. But if you know a friend is really trying to reduce their consumption why on earth would you get them junk they don’t really want or need?
I suggest a bottle of wine, a bouquet of flowers and some holiday cheer. Forget the junk – it’s just going to end up re-gifted anyway.
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$120 per yard??
Are you out of your fucking mind??? *ONE* curtain that drapes to the floor (of my house, anyway) would cost $280! Just one curtain, forget about the other side of the window, never mind the other 13 windows in my house. Who are these people?
How about this: how about you take that $250 of that $280 and donate it to Habitat of Humanity, or Heifer.org, or Medecins Sans Frontiers, and with the $30 left over buy me a nice bottle of wine. I'll make us a delicious beef tenderloin (organic and grassfed, natch), and we'll have a nice "small footprint" Christmas dinner and actually do some good for this world.
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Also, rubber bags?
I can't even begin to the imagine the sticking and chafing that would occur if anyone tried to use a rubber bag as a bike bag, particularly in the summer.
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I decided to go green and animal friendly this holiday season
I bought collections of green household products (floor, kitchen, and bathroom cleaners, laundry detergent, biodegradable wipes, leather cleaners, etc.), added some other products such as Power Plumber which uses pressurized gas to unclog drains, biodegradable garbage bags, etc., and wrapped them in colorful, re-usable shopping bags.
I shopped at the Pacifica Alternative Gifts Fair and made donations on behalf of friends and family to provide shelter to dogs, cats, and the homeless, to protect gorillas, and equipment for beach restoration.
For my younger relatives, I also added a gift card to the itunes store with the following note on it: By buying music from the Apple Store, you are helping to prevent a stack of CD's 2.6 miles high from having to be manufactured PER DAY.
I'm not exactly sure how these gifts will be received (some friends I've told are aghast, others loved it so much they borrowed my idea) but I know that it has filled me with cheer!