Eco-friendly gifts for the holidays
Shopping for a tree-hugging friend who's got everything? Tired of feeling guilty when you hand over your credit card? Or just looking for a funky and unique present?
The "Green Gift Guide" strives to satisfy those needs and help you save the planet this holiday season.
Produced by the nonprofit Glen Ellyn-based recycling education organization, SCARCE, the guide is a link to local stores and national Web sites offering eco-friendly products.
"We're trying to make it easy for people to make greener choices," said Kay McKeen, executive director of SCARCE, which stands for School and Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education.
Gifts getting a green light range from a Wheaton shop that makes handbags out of candy wrappers to a Schaumburg Aveda store raising money for the poor in Nepal to a Vernon Hills retailer that sells solar-powered flashlights.
While visiting area schools to talk about recycling, McKeen routinely displays green products, such as earrings made from an old computer motherboard.
She got the idea for the guide after hearing, "Where did you get that?" for the umpteenth time.
The guide links shoppers to retailers selling recyclables, natural products without toxins and to environmentally responsible companies.
To find SCARCE's Green Gift Guide online, visit the Web site s-c-a-r-c-e.org or call (630) 545-9710.
Recommendations, including restaurants, have been tested, bought and eaten by the SCARCE staff.
"For people without much time to shop, we can help them find products we like that aren't 'green wash,'" McKeen said, referring to phony environmental products.
"We're really careful with the companies that we put on our list. No one gives us any money to be named on the list."
Among McKeen's favorites are a Naperville pizzeria with solar lighting in the bathrooms, a company that creates bling from used circuit boards and Ace Hardware stores selling white, lead-free garden hoses.
While some of the venues are Web-based, others are neighborhood shops, such as It's Our Earth in Wheaton.
Richard and Xristina Rahn were inspired to open the store by their children who remonstrated with them when they threw pop cans into the garbage instead of recycling them.
Richard added, "with the kids inspiring us to recycle, we put our heads together to develop some fun and clever things out of materials we have access to."
The shop at 127 N. Main St. has a variety of wares ranging from tote bags made of coffee sacks, fashionista-worthy purses that started life as food wrappers, chip bowls from old LPs, and sturdy sketch pads crafted from vintage record jackets.
One tote bag made an appearance on the popular TV show "Brothers and Sisters," Richard Rahn said.
But that Hollywood moment hasn't turned their heads. The store is for anyone "looking for green gifts, fair-trade gifts, and gifts made in the USA," Rahn said.
Another vendor recommended by SCARCE is Aveda, which has shops in Oak Brook and Schaumburg.
The company manufactures plant-based beauty products and is raising funds for needy communities in Nepal by using Nepali handcrafted paper in its gift bags.
"We're joining hands with families in Nepal," said Trina Ella, store manager at the Aveda in Woodfield Shopping Center. The gift bags are helping to raise family incomes and send children to school, she added.