Small Packages: Good Things

Once holiday gifts are open, there's the pile of boxes and plastic packaging, not to mention gift wrap, to contend with. In 2001, Americans threw away 73.5 million tons of packaging, making up 28 percent of all solid-waste landfill. From recycled paper and make-your-own wraps to where to draw the line on packaging, here's help.

Packaging

Plastic clam shell, cellophane and bubble wrap, styrofoam blocks, bulky, thick cardboard boxes, packing peanuts and plastic bags, all end up filling garbage bags larger than Santa's sack.

Some Ways To Use Less

Choose reusable and recyclable packaging: Sturdy metal tea and cookie tins are easily reused. For $7.35 tea tins with Fair Trade certified Earl Grey, Pacific Coast Breakfast and other tea varieties, see www.taylormaidfarms.com; for organic cookies in tins at $16 Canadian and up, see www.mainstreetorganics.com.

Cardboard boxes and paper packing material are easily recycled, whereas bubble wrap and molded plastic packaging are not.

Avoid redundant packaging: Look at the size of the package compared to the product. For example, software and computer-game cd-roms are often packaged in boxes several times their size; ask for the disk and book instead. Items purchased online usually come in doubled-up boxes with bubble wrap, so buy locally, where possible, instead. Or check with the online seller about packaging.

Buy more locally: Reduce the shipping miles and help support local craftspeople and producers. For distant friends and family, see if you can order items such as food baskets from their local area.

Buy items in bulk, such as fruit, tea, coffee or chocolate, to use as stocking stuffers or in gift baskets or goodie boxes/tins you fill yourself.

Wrapping Paper and Cards

According to the Greeting Card Association, some 2.6 billion holiday cards are sent each Christmas. Skip chlorine-beached paper, look for the Processed Chlorine Free (PCF) label. Or reuse old paper, wrap in fabric tied with string or choose recycled (look for high percentages of post-consumer waste).

Make the wrap a gift: scarves, backpacks, purses, robes and other items can serve as containers or wraps for other gifts, binding them with a hair ribbon or a belt.

Recycled or Tree-Free: Grow-A-Note card packs come with wildflower seeds embedded in cards made of 50 percent recycled post-consumer waste and 50 percent recovered cotton and recycled envelopes (8 for $15; www.Greenfieldpaper.com, 888-402-9979). Greenfieldpaper.com also offers a 100 percent junk-mail note set (5 cards and 5 envelopes, $5.95). Sierra Club's notecards, with images ranging from the coasts to the canyons, are printed on recycled paper (box of 20 for $14.95, www.sierraclub.org). www.Acorndesigns.org has 100 percent PCW and tree-free notecards (6 cards and 6 envelopes for $7.50).

Tree-free gift wrap made from hemp, flax or cotton fiber can be ordered from Granola Groovy ($1.99 Canadian per sheet; info@granolagroovy.com, 250-477-0146). Ecosource has tree-free paper made from 40 percent flax, 40 percent hemp and 20 percent recovered cotton ( $3.20 Canadian/sheet, www.islandnet.com/~ecodette/wrapping.htm). Kraft unbleached brown paper is cheap, and you can decorate it yourself or just wrap it with string; look for 100 percent recycled and 30 percent PCW. "Mapwrap" is made from surplus New York City subway maps ($3 for 2 sheets, www.forestsaver.com).

Bags: Certified organic cotton canvas lunch sack, unbleached, suitable for gifts ($7.50; www.ecobags.com, 800-720-2247). Bag and Forth reusable cloth gift bags are not organic cotton but are available in a variety of sizes and patterns (classic assortment, 6 for $24.99; www.bagandforth.com, 888-877-6142). Patagonia sells recycled fabric gift bags in three sizes (small holds one shirt; medium, 2-3 shirts; large, a jacket) for $2 (to order call Patagonia at 800-638-6464).

Go through the rag bag. Use any old (clean) cloth or scarves, frayed T-shirts, pillowcases or fresh new organic-cotton dishcloths or napkins that can be part of the present, especially if it's kitchenwares or food, following the Japanese custom of furoshiki, or cloth wrapping of gifts (see "12 days," page 4, for organic cotton napkins). Organic dishtowels (3 for $11.99) and kitchen towel (1 for $8.99) are available from Granola Groovy (www.granolagroovy.com, 250-477-0146).