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Eco-friendly holiday gifts
As we begin celebrating this joyous holiday season, and are thinking of the perfect gifts for your family and friends, consider looking for eco-friendly items to buy. Extending that gift giving joy to our earth, is getting much easier too, as more sustainable/eco-friendly items are made. We consumers hold most of the power and can vote for what we want, with every purchase we make. When we choose products that cause less or no harm to public health or the environment, we send a clear message to manufacturers that we make safeguarding both, a top priority, for current and future generations.
Most companies source components used to make their products, that are the least expensive for them, but sadly that often comes at great expense to our environment. From mining, drilling, and in the processing of raw materials, to their manufacturing, (not to mention shipping & packaging), there is almost always a negative footprint left on our world. When we choose items with the least negative impact, not only do we help the environment, but we also let companies know: if they want to stay competitive, they'll produce more environmentally friendly products.
Below is a short list of ideas and a few links to either buy or get eco-friendly gift ideas from.
The 1st and best option doesn't require a purchase at all, as it's giving the gift of your time. It can be done nicely in a number of ways. For example, you could make a book filled with "coupons" your family and friends can "redeem" for things you would do for or with them, like: doing indoor or outdoor chores, shopping or rides to appointments, babysitting, house or pet sitting, dinners or seeing a movie or show together, or simply spending time visiting. You could also add blank coupons they can fill in themselves to "redeem" with you. Our time is the most precious & priceless thing we can give, that's greatly appreciated by both the young and old. When we choose to "spend" it on others, not only do we enhance their life and ours, but we also save $ and protect the environment, by not adding more goods to our world, that will need care and eventually, once its usefulness is over, will then be discarded. Remember when we throw things away, there is no "away", it remains here, somewhere on the planet, polluting someone's local environment (in some cases for 100's of years).
Next are gifts to help make memories with. This can include restaurant, cafe, movie, theater, classes and event tickets or gift certificates, that people you're buying for can redeem, often when they want. Gift certificates for places they enjoy are great, because then they can buy or do things they want or need. It also reduces packaging & wrapping. Speaking of, did you know that 29.7% of municipal solid waste is single use packaging? 77.5 million tons generated in 2015 alone. (data from https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/containers-and-packaging-product-specific-data ). These numbers are a good incentive to reduce our buying or switch to eco-friendly items. Many have no packaging, or are biodegradable, as well as the item or product itself.
Wrapping paper is also a non eco-friendly issue, since most of it isn't recyclable & takes a long time to break down. Consider making your own, decorating a plain paper bag, reusing gift bags, or simply forgo any covering at all. Most older people can tell of a time when Santa didn't wrap gifts, & the rest from family & friends were simply wrapped in reusable cloth.
Finally, consider buying local. If the stores you frequent don't have a good selection of eco-friendly items, ask them to stock more. In doing so you not only help the environment (by reducing shipping/packaging associated with online shopping), but are also help your local economy and community stability. If it's difficult for you to shop in stores, please google "eco-friendly gifts" or check out the suggested websites below for gifts, ideas and learning opportunities. Many sites offer products made in the U.S. too. When we make small changes in our gift giving ways, they can have a huge positive impact on public health and the environment.
Happy Holidays from all of us here at Great Lakes Environmental Alliance!
https://eartheasy.com/ , https://www.1worldglobes.com/ , https://www.hugg-a-planet.com/collections/foundlings/products/cares-for-bears/ , http://www.castlecompost.com/ , https://www.colorsofnature.com/ , https://www.etsy.com/market/eco_friendly_gifts/ , www.reachandteach.com/ ,
https://www.uncommongoods.com/gifts/collections/green-gifts/ , https://store.sierraclub.org/storefront/
You Can Help Save The Monarch Butterfly!
The Monarch Butterfly is a remarkable insect with a life migration story encompassing many generations and thousands of miles. They are critical pollinators for our wildflowers, trees, vegetables and other crops.
Monarchs have lost 80% of their population in a few decades, in part from climate change, in part from loss of habitat and loss of milkweed plants, the latter due largely to overdevelopment and also modern farming practices such as monocropping (the practice of planting only one or two crops at a time to maximize profit, leaving pollinators with large areas bereft of blooms, once the main crops have blossomed.)
The use of toxic herbicides affect milkweed and other nectar plants that Monarchs rely on and the Monarchs themselves are affected by widespread use of pesticides -used in urban settings, as well as in non-organic farming.
Milkweed is necessary for the Monarch’s survival, as this is the plant they lay their eggs on. Also, the adult Monarchs need a variety of nectar plants to feed on. The resources listed below give more details on plants that will help the Monarch Butterfly survive.
GLEA at the St. Clair County Earth Fair, 2018
In 2018, GLEA volunteers distributed milkweed seeds and information on how to create a Monarch Habitat in your own backyard, at spring and summer events. Please join us in 2019 in our efforts to protect this important, amazing and beautiful pollinator.
What You Can Do
Create a Monarch Waystation at your home or school. Learn More: Go to Monarch Watch and click on their Monarch Waystation Program
Collect milkweed seeds!
· Plant them. Share them with other gardeners. One webpage with growing instructions is from The Monarch Butterfly Garden: https://monarchbutterflygarden.net/cold-moist-stratification-milkweed-seeds/
· Send them to organizations that distribute them. One such organization is Monarch Watch. See: https://monarchwatch.org/bring-back-the-monarchs/milkweed/milkweed-regions-seed-needs/
Participate in Projects for Schools and Non-Profits.
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife has a downloadable "Schoolyard Habitat Project Guide - A planning guide for creating schoolyard habitat and outdoor classroom projects" https://www.fws.gov/cno/pdf/HabitatGuideColor.pdf
- Monarch Watch also has Free milkweeds for schools and educational non-profits and cool projects for classrooms.
Raise Monarch Butterflies. Visit the Monarch Butterfly Garden webpage here for more information: https://monarchbutterflygarden.net/monarch-butterfly-kit/
Plant Milkweed Native to Your Area* (Monarchs lay their eggs on the underside of milkweed leaves.)
Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
General Nectar Plants ** (Adult Monarch butterflies feed on these.)
Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella)
Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpureum)
Scarlet Sage (Salvia coccinea)
Tithonia Torch, Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia)
Zinnia, Dahlia Mix (Zinnia elegans)
* Plants listed are local to the Great Lakes Region.
** This is only a partial list of nectar plants that adult Monarchs in the Great Lakes Region feed on.
Learn more! Resources on Monarch Butterflies - Check out their links!
Kidzone has a special page on Monarch Butterflies (with clip art you can use in reports and puzzles for fun.) See: https://www.kidzone.ws/animals/monarch_butterfly.htm
U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Save the Monarch Butterfly website has many actions you can take. Visit their site to learn about these and other opportunities: Plant milkweed native to your area; Become a Citizen Scientist and help monitor Monarchs where you live. Note that this is their Midwest page. See: https://www.fws.gov/midwest/monarch/ - They also have a Monarch Migration Map: https://www.fws.gov/savethemonarch/pdfs/migration-map.pdf
Become a Butterfly Hero with National Wildlife Federation: https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Invertebrates/Monarch-Butterfly
The Million Pollinator Garden Challenge is a campaign to register a million public and private gardens and landscapes to support pollinators. See: http://millionpollinatorgardens.org/
The Xerces Society has a Monarch Conservation page: https://xerces.org/monarchs/ and also a Milkweed Seed Finder: https://xerces.org/milkweed-seed-finder/
North American Butterfly Association also has great resources on butterfly gardens and counts (for all butterflies): https://www.naba.org/
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources webpage on Monarchs – One of very few places you can see large numbers of Monarch butterflies during their migration is at Peninsula Point in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. See https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-350-79137_79770_79873_80003-429207--,00.html
MSU (Michigan State University) Extension posts information on a program from USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) that allows financial assistance to landscapers, nursery owners and gardeners to create or improve habitat for Monarch butterflies. Learn more: https://tinyurl.com/ycc5s78j
Help GLEA save our Monarch butterfly!