Also if you absolutely NEED to use Amazon try buying warehouse items (and they are cheaper) and using slow shipping (which usually gives you credit towards ebooks, movies, etc).
Some items (like books) you can find used on the Amazon page as well. I’ve bought from Better World Books and Thirftbooks using Amazon gift cards I received one year.
If someone gave me the gift of getting my car serviced (or cleaned and detailed) without me having to deal with it I think I'd do cartwheels 🤣 That's how you know you're an adult
This is an amazing video--well done! Seriously, I can tell you put a lot of effort into this list and it has something for everyone, Thank you! . Loved all of the "adult" gift ideas like car repair, new underwear, bathroom products, etc. When I was a teen/young adult my mother would fill our stockings with our favorite shampoos, deodorants, toothpaste and such. It was always my favorite gift because it meant not having to spend $$ on restocking staple items for the new year. I would LOVE to receive some low waste bathroom staples and so glad you included them in your list. . Also, yes please, would love to see you do a video about Amazon. Thank you! :)
Im a teen living with my mom trynna do reduced waste. Its surprisingly hard. I went veggie and only one other person in my house likes the food. My big little brother (he has severe autism) is extremely picky. He will only eat veggie options if they're nearly identical to real meat. This holiday is hard too with my family's feasts with tons of leftover meat. I start to eat it when it goes to waste. If theres something I hate more than eating meat its wasting meat. Ah sorry for the vent 😪
I feel you! Meat going to waste is soooo sad!! I think preventing that from going to the landfill is more environmentally friendly :) I have a video I made this spring about how to live zero waste as a teen! I hope that helps :)
We stan hippie haven! It's a woman owned local buisness to me, based in Rapid City, SD. The shop is adorable and the folks who work there including the woman who owns it, are great people! The also have a small plant shop and they frequently do plant swaps.
I decided to do my holiday shopping EARLY this year. I wanted to support small businesses, eco-conscience businesses, and avoid Amazon completely this season(so i didnt have the need to do "express" shipping). And I did!:) Thank you so much for posting this video!
Yeah. I remember when you mentioned about making a colorful rug and would make it later. You did it! I came back to my old hobby of crocheting and I gifted my mom a crochet market bag made out of 150 plastic bags, I recommend it, it's super resistant. And now I am making my dad a hat out of wool yarn that I unraveled from old sweaters with holes from the thrift shop. My! All your ideas you gave here are awesome!!! Thank you for them! Edit: ps, yes please talk about Amazon
Ohhhhh this actually is a different one from that! i made a second colorful rectangle rug this spring haha! This is a third and I have enough for another!!! That's so cool :)
Loved your entire list 👏👏👏👏👏👏. I live in Portugal so a lot of those brands are not available to me, but it's good to know that they are available. I have family and friends in the USA so next time I need to send someone a gift I am going to revisit this video. I have socks and bath towels made of a bamboo and cotton blend that I love, they are soft and absorbent and last a really long time 👍😊. You can also get clothing made from hemp, it's similar to linen, it doesn't need any pesticides to grow 👍. And if anyone else here is in Portugal I want to suggest Venn foods, it's a vegan zeros waste meal prep service. We have used them and really enjoyed the receipts and there is no plastic 😊👍👏👏👏. Happy holidays P.S. I loved your cat chatting to you, I thought that it was my cat, but he is sleeping on my bed🥰🥰🥰🐱
Thank you Emma. Just found your channel on here. You say what I think. I just hope that people who don't think sustainable find your channel. I've been looking to create environmentally friendly Christmas packages to hopefully turn some of my 11 siblings onto sustainable products.
Interesting. Now I'm back to the kitchen to make fruitcake as a Christmas gift. I do a lot of baking/candy making for Christmas gifts for my neighbors and friends. I did thrift store a couple toys for my friends 3 year old son.. a book on dinosaurs and a Jack In the Box. I made her produce bags from recycled lace curtains. Anna In Ohio
First off, thank you so much for mentioning sun screen! Recognition of SPF in the zero-waste community is finally taking off, it seems. But even better still, you featured an Aussie brand. Australian SPFs have by far the highest standards in the world, so TGA-approved Australian sunscreens work EXACTLY as they claim. This is super important because a decent chunk of zero-waste sunscreens aren't being produced to therapeutic standards. I even see independent sellers on Etsy offering untested, homemade, non-broad spectrum sunscreen in packaging where it's exposed to light (which degrades filters, especially mineral filters). There's so many problems with that, I ran out of sentence listing them, haha. But filter degradation is why Sun Bum opts for metal packaging. On a related note, while Dirty Hippie products are great and I love a bunch of them, the brand is attempting to pass an unregulated sunscreen under the radar. Given sunscreen is a medical device, this which could get them into a lot of trouble. I wanted to suggest a personal favourite for folks who need VERY heavy duty (but still /more/ sustainable sunscreen): Rilastil is a great cosmeceutical skincare brand developed in Italy. I discovered them because of their stellar SPF 131, UVAPF 53 option, as well as their pro-DNA repair tech in sun care products + acne-prone/sensitive skin-friendly formulas. But what's really stellar is their sense of corporate responsibility compared to other pharmaceutical labs. The 'father' brand has an entire webpage dedicated to outlining their sustainability, but it's Italian language only. However, you can read a very limited selection here: rilastil.com/our-responsibility. Is it perfect? No, but if you need really hardcore sunscreen, it's the best I've found. Safety first, etc. All of their plastic bottles are made up of 90-96% Green PE (vegetable-sourced bioplastics). They only use FSC-certified paper. They are carbon neutral and utilise renewables-powered energy supply. All of their packaging is recyclable (including caps), and is regularly re-designed to reduce CO2 emissions. The company uses aluminium for most creams and to package products that could be environmentally disruptive if disposed of incorrectly, thereby preventing leaks. Where PET is used out of necessity, it's because the demand for Green PE outstripped availability via ethical supply chains. In these instances, products are launched using 100% recycled PET, then migrated to Green PE once a supply chain is secured. Most of their formulas are biodegradable, and they don't include water soluble filters, EDTA, parabens (for the allergic), or SLS/SLES. They also strive to limit silicone usage as much as possible in the creation of their products.
@@TheSimpleEnvironmentalist Aww, no worries at all! Skincare is kind of my hobby, which spawned out of having a lot of complex needs. It's been a challenge to find suitable sustainable/zero-waste options--and then remind myself that the most zero-waste thing is to *not* buy as much as possible. (In a way, I think this keeps me more focused, since products take their time to work. Ideally, one should stick with the same thing for at least 3 months in general!) Sunscreen is one of those areas where some people have medical needs, like benign skin cancers or actinica keratosis, or just exceptionally fair skin in a climate that reaches a UV rating of 11 (that's me for half the year! I'd rather not become one of the 2/3 Aussies who get skin cancer. Thanks, humanity, for that hole in the o-zone layer right above my home city.). There's truly a number of good zinc-based zero waste options out there once you know what to look for to make sure it works (I love that you dedicated a video to SPF), but it's good to know that there's options like Rilastil if you ever find yourself needing something capable of protecting a worrying mole, etc.
@@TheSimpleEnvironmentalist I actually have a lot of sustainability-focused skincare tips/product suggestions. I wish I had a platform to host them. There's a lot of challenges for the cosmetic industry to overcome with regards to packaging (stability of natural antioxidants, like Vitamin A and C, without resorting to mixed material airless pumps), but it's also an industry that really isn't in great shape sustainability-wise. ): I see the improvements, and little brands are out there doing their best, but it's not really close to enough initiative on the whole. I look at it, and probably only make-up seems worse! That said, I discovered the cutest plant-based/food-grade mineral-free zero-waste make-up brand the other day. Never seen anything like it! www.etsy.com/au/shop/DabHerbMakeup?
@@TheSimpleEnvironmentalist If you'd like to work together on this, I'd absolutely be up for the project! EDIT: I hope you won't mind, but I've reached out on Instagram. :)
Please make an Amazon video. They are incredibly unethical in their dealings with medium and small businesses and their logistics (including the way they order inventory and return it to the businesses that produce it) is horrible for the earth.