Zero Gifts = Zero Waste

I’ve talked previously on this blog about the wasteful nature of gift giving, offering tips ranging from using sustainable wrapping options, sending electronic gift-cards, gifting “green” products, and shopping locally. However, this week I take the gift-specific waste reduction to a whole new level by suggesting going gift free. Radical? Perhaps. Effective? You betcha!



I am not so sullied and disheartened by the manic grips of capitalism which shape our daily lives in overt and at times invisible ways as to suggest never giving or receiving a gift again. After all, environmentalism should be fun! I do, however, think it’s worthwhile to consider replacing one gift-giving occasion each year with an electronic fundraiser instead.

I had been pondering this idea for a while, when I finally decided to put it into action. Having recently celebrated my birthday, this year I started a birthday fundraiser on Facebook and asked for donations to a charity of my choice in lieu of gifts.

The process was incredibly easy and streamlined, and in less than 10 minutes, my Facebook fundraiser was ready to go. I simply navigated to the Fundraisers tab along the sidebar, clicked “select non-profit” and then set up a fundraiser to benefit Pollinator Partnership. Facebook even generates an informational call-to-action detailing the mission of your selected charity and allows you to customize it to explain why it’s important to you.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am passionate about pollinators. I studied populations of native pollinators while in school and dressed as a bumble bee for Halloween this year, handing out informational pamphlets to raise awareness about pollinator decline.

By utilizing a fundraiser in lieu of gifts, I was able to support a cause I care about, avoid accumulating more things, and remove waste from my daily life in terms of wrapping paper, bags, packaging, shipping emissions, receipts, and the multitude of waste that accompanies a modern purchased gift.

To those few dedicated family and friends who got me a gift anyway, I appreciate your generosity! However, overall I feel I was successful in reducing waste by giving to a cause rather than receiving.

Facebook has a readily-supplied list of charities from which to choose. However, I recommend researching your charity of choice using Charity Navigator or similar sites to evaluate the effectiveness and transparency of charities before creating a fundraiser on their behalf.

The fundraiser you choose will receive donations either directly from Facebook or through Network for Good or Paypal Giving Fund depending on where/how the organization has enrolled to receive payments. You can read more about the logistics behind the process on the Facebook Help Center’s page on Fundraisers and Donations.

I set a goal of raising $200 for Pollinator Partnership, and surpassed that by $35. I raised money for an environmental non-profit while furthering my mission to reduce waste in my daily life. A win-win!

If you are averse to the idea of creating an electronic fundraiser via Facebook, or if you do not have Facebook, you can still donate to a charity in other ways, including via check, collecting supplies such as food and clothing, or in donating your time by volunteering for the organization yourself or with others. Check out 7 Ways You Can Make a Donation to Charity for other ideas and tips.

Birthdays, or really any gift-giving occasion, are a great time to try this zero-gift / zero-waste challenge. Added bonus if the charity of your choice champions an environmental cause.

What are your thoughts on the zero-gift / zero-waste challenge? What charity would you champion in your fundraiser? As always, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below, and best of luck on your journey toward greener living!

~Sam

Recharge, Reuse, Recycle: Why Rechargeable Batteries are the Greener Option

Greetings, and thanks for tuning back in for another installment of Greener Living. With the hullabaloo of the holidays followed by a bout of flu, it has been some time since my last post. However, I am back this week and ready to preach the environmental benefits of using rechargeable batteries over traditional, single-use alkaline alternatives.

With so many gadgets and technological devices on the market and in our homes, we are using more batteries than ever before. In fact, roughly 3 billion batteries are sold in the US every year, comprising a $50 billion market, according to battery statistics found online, albeit somewhat outdated ones. A mere 11% of those batteries sold are rechargeable batteries.

It may seem like a harmless enough process to exchange your dead batteries for new ones, a simple and convenient task we often do without even thinking, but in reality those single-use batteries that we so readily replace and throw away are creating serious amounts of hazardous waste.

According to the EPA, Americans throw away more than 3 billion batteries every year, amounting to 180,000 tons of battery waste. 86,000 tons of this waste consist of single-use alkaline batteries. In every state aside from California, it is legal to simply throw away these alkaline batteries with your regular trash. As detailed on Everyday Green’s post on battery statistics, when a battery enters a landfill the casing can be crushed or degraded to the point that it allows toxins to leach into the environment, potentially contaminating air and waterways. The heavy metals found in batteries, including nickel, cadmium, cobalt, and lead, in addition to the corrosive acids in batteries, can further contaminate our environment, posing health risks to us and our planet.

Am I suggesting that we do away with batteries altogether? No, of course not! I for one have a plethora of battery-powered devices that I use with extreme regularity. In fact, it was my use of these devices that first inspired me to cut down my battery waste by making the switch to rechargeable batteries.

With my alarm clock, lantern, and headlamp being used on the daily, I invested in some rechargeable triple-A batteries. After some research and reconnaissance of online reviews, I decided to purchase the Energizer Recharge Power Plus batteries, as they claimed to have the longest lifespan and were made with 4% recycled batteries. In an exciting turn of events, I already had a battery charger at home from a previous dalliance into the world of rechargeables. However, in an unfortunate turn of events, this charger, which was well over ten years old, was no longer functional. The batteries cost around $15 for a 4-pack, and the charger, which came with two double-A rechargeable batteries, cost $12 in my local grocery store. (Remember, shopping locally is the greener option as compared to ordering online).

Although I have just begun using the batteries, they can be recharged up to 1500 times and last up to 5-years under typical usage patterns. This has staggering ramifications from a waste-reduction standpoint. If I had a device that required three triple-A batteries, and I was replacing those batteries every month, I would be generating 36 batteries worth of waste every year. Instead, I will now be able to power the same hypothetical device using a mere three batteries, recharging as needed, for the next five years (as opposed to the 180 non-rechargeable batteries I would have otherwise used over a five-year span). In spite of the higher initial costs, the capacity to reuse rechargeable batteries has significant cost-saving ramifications as well.

Although charging times can take from 6-13 hours, these batteries retain their charge for up to 12 months and come pre-charged and ready to use! So, with a little forethought and planning ahead, they are just as convenient as the traditional single-use alkaline batteries currently inundating our landfills and polluting our planet.

However, switching to rechargeable batteries is just one facet of greener battery use. It’s important that we also commit to disposing of our used up, single-use, alkaline batteries in a responsible manner. Although these batteries can technically be disposed of in our traditional trash stream, from an environmental standpoint it’s best to seek an option to recycle your old batteries. These options include:
1. Calling your solid waste district to find out if your community has a collection program or upcoming event
2. Searching for areas that accept and recycle single-use alkaline batteries using Earth 911’s Recycling Search
3. Finding a mail-in recycling program such as Battery Solutions or Call2Recycle

At the end of their long lives, rechargeable batteries should also be disposed of responsibly, i.e. recycled.

Overall, a product that can be reused thousands of times as opposed to being continually discarded and replaced is a far more sustainable option. It is with this mindset that I encourage you to make the switch to rechargeable batteries as you continue your journey toward greener living. As always, let me know how it goes and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

~Sam