Eco-Chick · The modern girl's guide to living green & fabulous.

Eco-Wrapping

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by Ann Benoit · 11/20/06

Although the Holiday season hasn’t officially hit (I know its not even Thanksgiving), its never too early too start thinking about environmental ways to approach the season. It is estimated that almost 25 million tons more waste is created during the holidays than over a typical ten-week period. The extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week!

If every family reused just two feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet. If every American family wrapped just 3 presents in re-used materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields. The 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year in the U.S. could fill a football field 10 stories high. If we each sent one card less, we’d save 50,000 cubic yards of paper.

So enough of statistics! Here are some tips to be more environmentally conscious when wrapping presents:

Instead of using wrapping paper, get in the habit of wrapping your family presents in cool fabric and ribbons that you reuse every year. If you’re super crafty, make cloth sacks out of fun fabric and ribbon closures or knit one. Thrift stores often have great options for inexpensive fabrics. Get creative!

If you do use wrapping paper, try to buy only recycled options. Fortunately attractive options exist! One of my favorite companies, paporganics, “sustainable stationary and gift wrap” sells beautiful gift wrap and all the trimmings (hemp wrap, gift enclosure cards, natural ribbons and gift tissue). savitris makers of handmade recycled paper products also sells gorgeous gift wrap that i would drool to get a present wrapped in. BuyGiftPaper.com sells inexpensive recycled wrapping paper in solid colors ($12.95 for a 24″x100′roll) and KidBean sells recycled hemp wrap.

Use recycled craft paper to create your own recycled wrap with interesting stamps or sponge painting

Make sure to recycle all wrapping paper when possible, but check first with your local recycling program to make sure they accept conventional wrapping paper. Most conventional wrapping paper contains a high content of metal and is therefore not accepted by most programs. When not using recycled wrap, try not to buy the metallic wrap because of this reason.

Make your own wrapping paper by recycling ordinary items from your house. Colorful magazine pages, the comics, wacky personals pages, phone book listings all make interesting and unique wrapping materials. Make a collage and use that. Why buy paper when you can just reuse something cool you already have?

book, car, Christmas, Crafts, fabric, fabrics, garbage, giving, Handmade, hemp, holiday, Holidays, kids, local, magazine, Organic, paper, recycle, recycled, Recycling, reuse, sustainable, Tea, waste

Clearwater Great Hudson River Revival

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by Starre Vartan · 06/19/06

I had the best time at the Hudson River Clearwater Revival this weekend! It is one of the oldest environmental summer festivals in the country (over 35 years!) and still going strong! In fact I think there were more people this year than I’ve seen in awhile. I attended this gathering as a kid (when I wasn’t away at camp) and it has always bookended my summers- Clearwater Revival as summer starts, and the Garrison Art Center’s Arts & Crafts Fair towards the end. Clearwater is more that just having fun though. The price of admission goes towards educating people about the importance of the Hudson River from the Clearwater sloop.

All proceeds go directly to support Clearwater’s environmental research, education and advocacy to help preserve and protect the Hudson River and its tributaries, as well as communities in the river valley.

The Clearwater has quite a history, a true story of locally-based action eventually having a national impact.

Back in the mid-sixties, after centuries of accumulated sewage pollution and industrial dumping of toxic chemicals, the Hudson River was deemed “dead”. The river’s fragile ecological system was devastated. Not a single fish was found in many areas; the level of commercial fishery dropped dramatically and the once-thriving oyster harvesting industry became almost nonexistent. Recognizing this incredible social and environmental tragedy, Pete Seeger, a popular musician and respected activist, decided “to build a boat to save the river”. Holding small, fundraising river concerts throughout the Hudson River Valley, he literally passed his banjo among the crowd, collecting contributions to build the elegant tall ship that would become a symbol of environmental advocacy, the flagship of the American Environmental Movement, the Sloop Clearwater.

Later, Pete Seeger and the Clearwater org helped pass the original Clean Water Act and more recently forced GE to clean up the PCB’s they had dumped in the river.

I helped out at the E Magazine table, ate vegan soul food at Nyota’s Ting, listened to more music than I could keep track of (the stage was solar powered), caught some rays on the grass next to my beloved Hudson River, talked to lots of folks about tomorrow night’s POMED event in NYC, went shopping for some great new clothes (I’ll be highlighting some of the great stuff I found in future posts), signed petitions (one was to close Indian Point) and generally chilled out and appreciated the day.

The weather was beautiful, and the company was excellent. If you’d like to see more photos from the day, go to Remy C’s site.

book, clothes, Crafts, fish, Food, Hudson River, India, Lighting, local, magazine, Music, NYC, Pollution, Shopping, soul, style, summer, vegan, water, weather

London is well-fashioned in many ways

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by Summer Rayne Oakes · 02/18/06

The Crafts Council Gallery will be hosting a show that will house the U.K.’s small, albeit blossoming eco-fashion industry.

Well Fashioned examines the various ways in which fashion designers approach ‘green’ fashion, from materials and processes to concepts and techniques. Some outfits use organic or alternative fabrics like hemp, bamboo, wild silk and ingeo. Other exhibitors consider the ecological value of synthetic fabrics and biodegradable and recycled plastics.

Curator Rebecca Earley comments: ‘We hope that the exhibition will sow the seeds of change for a more ecological and ethical approach to fashion. Given that the majority of a garment’s impact on the environment occurs after the item has left the shop, an important part of the exhibition looks at the role of the consumer. How can a garment be bought, washed and disposed of as ecologically and ethically as possible?’

Some notables that will be there: Terra Plana, Kate Goldsworthy, and Ting.

More information can be found via: The Crafts Council

alternative fabrics, bamboo, Crafts, design, designer, designers, Eco-Chick, ethical, exhibition, fabric, fabrics, Fashion, hemp, London, Organic, plastic, plastics, recycle, recycled, silk