All I want for Christmas is… no more plastic waste!
As the days are getting darker here at our home near the Arctic Circle, we are lightening up the mood with Christmas presents. This is a wonderful tradition, but it takes a toll on our planet. So let’s enjoy the holidays less wastefully. To let you embrace the joy of giving (and receiving) gifts that are better for the environment, we want to share our top picks for plastic waste-free holiday presents.
1) Experiences that offset plastic: Tinggly
In the world that’s filled with things, time has become the most valuable of things. So if you want to give your loved ones luxury, wrap them some quality time. This can mean cooking dinner for your friends, reading a book to your kids or taking time for yourself to meditate. Our CEO Suvi Haimi treats her family with trips to her summer cabin for nature walks and berry picking.
There are also experiences that are already planned out, wrapped in a box with a personal note, and on top of it all remove plastics from nature. Tinggly allows you to choose a themed experience box from their collection and send it to someone special. Experiences are available in 100+ countries and range from romantic dinner cruises to guided city tours and extreme sports. A great way of rediscovering your own hoods with someone you love – or sending a gift to a faraway friend.
What we really love about Tinggly is their commitment to environmental preservation. Every Tinggly gift offsets CO2 emissions caused by the experience by 200% and removes 15kg (33lbs) of plastic from the planet’s rivers, lakes and oceans. For this holiday season, check out their Merry Christmas and Time Together boxes.
2) Reusable online shopping bag: RePack
You’ve already got it: carrying your own bag for shopping trips is great for reducing your plastic footprint. But online shopping? As the e-commerce market is soaring, a growing amount of single-use packaging is delivered only to be used once and thrown away. A few years ago, RePack set out to find a solution to reduce the waste and created a reusable and returnable packaging service.
After receiving your online product packed in RePack, you simply return the packaging into the nearest postbox free of charge. RePack then collects, cleans and redistributes the package.
If you’re online shopping gifts this year, check the stores that offer RePack as their packaging option to reduce your holiday waste.
3) Toys for your kids, grandkids, grad-grandkids and grand-grand-grand…: Grimm’s Toys
One of the biggest gifts that you can give to the environment is educating your kids about the importance of their choices. And this can be done with minimalist rainbow-colored toys!
Grimm’s Toys are beautiful wooden toys that are made with principles of Waldorf and Montessori education. The simple designs stimulate kids to unlock their creative potential with open-ended play. The wood comes from sustainably managed, FSC-certified forests and final pieces are colored with non-toxic, water-based dyes.
The colorful pieces are timeless design and last for generations. Our number one favorite is the modern classic Grimm’s Rainbows, which are a feast for the eyes and the creative mind.
4) Gift card to zero waste life: Package Free shop
Reducing, Reusing, Recycling and Replacing are gifts that keep on giving to the environment. Package Free is on a mission to make the world less trashy with products that help you follow the R’s. Ranging from natural cosmetics to biodegradable iPhone cases and zero waste lunch kits, Package Free offers a variety of everyday products that are a friendlier choice for nature. To give your loved one a present that they will be sure to use, we recommend getting a digital gift card.
Package Free stores are located in Williamsburg and Chelsea Market, NYC. The online store ships internationally and uses 100% plastic-free and 100% recyclable shipping materials.
5) Investment in future generations’ holidays: Alma Charity
Every year, Mother Earth makes sure our days be merry and bright and sometimes even Christmases be white. So what if instead of getting somebody something nobody needs, you gave back to our planet this year?
You can easily name a cause you care about. But do you know which non-profits support that cause? Alma App was launched last year to make it easy to be a philanthropist. The service allows you to find the things you care about from among 1.4 million local to global non-profits. You can donate once or set up a monthly subscription to one or many causes of your choice.
Our top picks for fighting plastic waste? Recently, we were honored to become a part of Ellen McArthur Foundation’s network CE100, and continue to further the transition to circular economy together with the group. To support the same causes, you can give directly or start raising donations by creating your own fund for Christmas on Alma App.
6) A double joy: Fazer’s Handmade Praline Box
Life is like a box of chocolates… You enjoy it while it lasts! Fazer’s handmade pralines are now available in compostable Sulapac box. We can assure you that the delicious chocolates won’t be around for long after they’ve been introduced to your taste buds. And the packaging? It can be reused, for example, as a gift package next Christmas and finally organically recycled.
The box is available online and in Fazer Cafés, Fazer Experience Visitor Centre and Gateau bakery shops.
Read more about our collaboration with Fazer.
7) Beauty in a biodegradable box: Cosmetics in Sulapac packaging
Enjoy your holidays with guilt-free pleasures for your skin. Our Nordic Collection packaging is made from sustainable, safe and microplastic-free material. We are partnered with amazing cosmetics brands that are committed in reducing their plastic waste footprint.
For this holiday season, check out these skincare products that are available online: Okanagan & Herb Farm’s “Ritual” Perfume Balm, Bioaroma’s Traditional Beeswax Ointments, ERUi’s Dreaming Duchess BIO Gesichtspflege and Choice Finland’s CHOICE Rosehip Balm.
8) Jewelry made of recycled materials
Luckily, this Christmas there are already many lovely brands to choose from that emphasise sustainability in their design and manufacturing. The Helsinki-based Luv North is one example and this holiday season they have Sulapac jewelry boxes as part of their campaign!
AIDA impact is another Helsinki-based jewelry brand with strong focus on sustainability: they use only natural materials in their handcrafted jewelry and are committed to making their products durable, using as much recycled materials as possible, and improving the transparency of the supply chain. Furthermore they aim for a positive social impact by employing immigrant and refugee women, and mostly mothers, and providing them a gateway to working life and a network in a new country. In AIDA’s pearl bar you may spot some Sulapac material as well…
From all of us at Sulapac, we wish you happy and plastic waste-free holidays!
Sulapac® is a wood-based material innovation inspired by Nordic nature. It is a lot like plastic, yet it biodegrades fully leaving no microplastics behind. As a premium material that is safe and circular by design, Sulapac is ideal for quality driven brands with genuine commitment to sustainability. Plastic product manufacturers can use Sulapac® with their existing machinery, making sustainability an easy choice. The company was founded in 2016 and is based in Helsinki, Finland. Sulapac has been ranked one of the 100 hottest startups in Europe by WIRED UK both in 2018 and 2019. Join our mission to save the world from plastic waste! sulapac.com