Green Options

Plotting a mid-winter travel escape? While discussion on “green travel” tends to focus on the “where” you’re going – like the exotic Costa Rica ecotourism tour – remember you can add a sustainable twist to any trip anywhere with a dash of pre-planning. Focus on the process – the what you’re doing and how you’re doing it – wherever you go and green up any destination.

Here are three things that always land in my family’s suitcase. Lightweight and small, these items are easy to pack and offer multiple uses throughout the trip:

1. Something to Chase
Pack one small piece of sports gear that gets you moving, such as a Frisbee, foam football or hacky sack.

Since we live far away from most of our close friends and family, we have to ship most of our gifts each year, which can end up being a pretty eco-unfriendly task considering the amount of wasteful shipping products out there. While we want our gifts to arrive completely unharmed, I want to make sure I’m not filling up the landfills with the three top offenders of shipping waste: styrofoam peanuts, brand new boxes, and plastic bubble wrap.

Thanks to my other gigs, I’ve got plenty of used packing materials laying around, all of which I reuse, or give to my kids for their art projects. In fact, our Christmas wrap is made entirely from brown packing paper stamped with carved potato stamps.

However, while you may not have those types of packing materials right in your closet, you probably have a few other things in there that will work well, and that won’t create more waste than necessary this holiday season.

Moving is a big task and can be a big hassle. Next time you’re getting ready for a big move, try to incorporate a few things that will help you save on waste and transport your things more efficiently.

Getting rid of stuff. Whether you’re moving from a bigger place to a smaller place, or just don’t want to move all of your old junk, moving is great at forcing you to pare down

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