A zero-waste Christmas gift guide
All of the Christmas cheer without any of the plastic (and you don’t even have to leave campus)
You may or may not have heard of Nought, the new zero waste store on Guy's Campus. It's the perfect place to start doing your Christmas shopping because :
1. The pink shopfront makes for the perfect #savingtheplanet Insta post.
2. It's actually affordable unlike other bougie zero waste stores.
Here are some top picks to make your Christmas shopping as easy as possible.
For your Dad:
Mums get a bad rap for being hard to shop for, but do you know who's worse? Dads. At least you can buy your mum a generic candle and a spa day, but god knows what middle aged men want for Christmas.
The solution is now here, a cute eco-friendly gift basket of goodies that are both practical and smell ridiculously good. I have no idea what the scent "Moroccan Roll" is actually supposed to mean, but it's rich and spicy and will make the whole house smell nice on Christmas morning.
For your Mum:
Christmas is usually a rough time for mums. Buying presents, cooking Christmas lunch, trying to stop slightly drunken relatives from getting into a fight about politics. Create the perfect self-care kit with loose-leaf tea for a fancy cuppa, alongside rose scented hand cream and soap.
For your sister:
Sadly I don't have a sister, but I am a sister so I just picked out all the stuff I think is cute. This soap also smells ridiculous good, like running through a meadow made of candyfloss.
This Chilly's bottle is one of favourites, it's covered in plants and elephants. Cap it all off with a fruity lip balm and very practical clip to attach your Chilly's bottle to your bag, et voila, Christmas shopping is sorted.
For your brother:
And last but not least, some picks for brothers. The brightest coffee cup I could find, another bar of delicious-smelling soap, as well as some teenage boy essentials: face wash and deodorant. The charcoal face wash is perfect for acne-prone skin, and contains tea tree to fight breakouts.
Now that you've the gifts under control, here are a few more tips to make your Christmas as eco-friendly as possible.
1. Avoid wasteful wrapping paper. Wrap presents in fabric that can be reused, or go for a brown paper that can be recycled (most sparkly/metallic/plasticky wrapping papers can't be.) Another good idea is to go for paper gift bags, than can be kept and reused.
2. Cut down on the Christmas dinner. Christmas is one of the worst times of year for food waste, so don't over-shop. Stick to what your actually going to eat rather than ending up with 5 turkeys, 10 bags of potatoes and a whole hog roast.
3. Skip the Christmas cards. Let's be real, have you ever been super excited to receive a Christmas card? Didn't think so.
4. Turn off the lights. Pretty as fairy lights can be, if you're no longer in the room, turn them off. It'll save you money on your electric bill and save the planet.
5. Pick the right tree. Look for the FSC logo when buying a real tree to make sure it's sustainably forested. If you prefer a plastic tree, take good care of it, because it takes 10 years to be more eco-friendly than a real one.
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