Sustainable Giving
This Waste Not Wednesday is all about giving! If you have extra resources and are in the spirit of giving this holiday season while looking for the most sustainable ways to do so, we’ve got you covered!
A great way to give sustainably to those in need is through donations of gently used clothing or items. It is best to give your items to organizations that give the items directly to those in need, such as local drives for school supplies, winter coats, or canned goods, rather than those that sell it at a profit, but either option is better than trashing items that still have a lot of life in them. You could also check with your local Buy Nothing group to see if anyone is “in search of” (“ISO”) certain items and give to those people directly.
If you have recently decluttered and don’t have any items to donate, another way to give sustainably is to volunteer your time! You could help out sorting food at your neighborhood food pantry, preparing meals at a shelter, or make a new year’s resolution to commit to regular volunteer work at an animal shelter or school, etc. You could also check your community’s upcoming events to see if there are opportunities to do any environmental conservation work, weather permitting of course. By volunteering locally, you can help improve and strengthen your community and cut down on fuel and waste from travel or the purchase of new items from afar.
Lastly, if you prefer to give a monetary gift this season, there are lots of great organizations that support sustainability. Donating to a local aid group is best, but if you have a national environmental (or other) nonprofit in mind, we recommend checking them out on charitywatch.org to make sure the funds are going to the right people or causes and not mostly eaten up by administrative costs or exec salaries. A few good ones working to rid our planet of chemicals and conserve our resources are Environmental Working Group, The Rainforest Alliance, and Ocean Conservancy, but depending on which issue is closest to your heart, there are lots of groups working together to save our planet from every angle!