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Gifting isn't easy for everyone, and it certainly isn't cheap. On top of that, unwanted gifts can be wasteful and lead to piles of returns or trash. But becoming a more sustainable, low-waste gifter will make you a better gifter and save you money!
In this episode, we give you dozens of great gift ideas from our community, and all of them are backed by the research of leading Dr. Julian Givi. We'll also talk about the carbon (and waste impact) of big holidays like Christmas.
If you want more gift ideas, we've got you covered! The Commons team curated gift guides for everyone on your list with over 300 unique, memorable gift ideas, including vintage items, experiences, and DIYs.
In this episode, we give you dozens of great gift ideas from our community, and all of them are backed by the research of leading Dr. Julian Givi. We'll also talk about the carbon (and waste impact) of big holidays like Christmas.
If you want more gift ideas, we've got you covered! The Commons team curated gift guides for everyone on your list with over 300 unique, memorable gift ideas, including vintage items, experiences, and DIYs.
🌎 For photos of our contributors and further reading, check the full show notes.
📞 We'd love to hear from you! Submit to the show.
📱 To join the Commons community, download the app.
- Listener contributions: Adyasha, Alyssa Barber, Amea Wadsworth, Anandi Yadav, Cara Haberman, Deb Hansen, Ezra Chaviv, Kelly Kandra Hughes, PhD, Morgan Gallagher, Rachel Orenstein, Timmin Vooijs
- Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild
- Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham
Creators & Guests
Editor
Guest
Julian Givi
Associate Professor of Marketing at West Virginia University's John Chambers College of Business and Economics
What is Second Nature?
How can we live sustainably in an unsustainable world? Second Nature is a podcast by Commons exploring how our sustainable choices impact our lives and the planet.
Every week hear how listeners are taking public transit, composting food waste, eating more plant-based meals and practicing deconsumption to create the kind of world they want to live in. We'll calculate the carbon impact of collective action and get expert answers to your burning climate questions.
Everyone’s sustainable life is unique. Tell us about yours. thecommons.earth/podcast
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Katelan (00:00):
Hey, welcome back to Second Nature, a podcast from Commons. If you're looking for one place to find dozens of unique, sustainable gift ideas and earn rewards for them, commons is it Tens of thousands of people use the Commons app to guide their sustainable lifestyles. And on this show we talk to people about how they're living sustainably in an unsustainable world.
Katelan (00:27):
Whether it's the holidays, a birthday, mother's Day, it feels like every month you need to buy a new gift. But gifting should be nice, right? You're giving a person who you know something to show that you appreciate them, that you thought of them. But then all these social norms start sneaking in the perceived expectations of what and how to gift. And all of a sudden you're wondering, did I spend enough money? Did I get enough things? Is this thoughtful enough? Should I have just gotten a gift card? Is a gift card a cop out? And on top of all that second guessing, you're faced with buying yet another thing in a world fraught with over consumption.
Katelan (01:08):
So how do we gift sustainably? How do we shop with intention even when sales seem to be coming at us from all angles? I'm your host, Kaitlyn Cunningham, and on this episode we are sharing some truly memorable, very special, sustainable gift ideas from our community. And we're officially gonna debunk the taboo that you can't gift secondhand stuff. We're also gonna talk to Dr. Julian Giy, the leading gifting researcher. Yes, that's a thing to find out which gifts really resonate with people and if it really is the thought that counts. Plus, we're diving into the environmental impact of peak gifting season with commons founders, St. Charlie, St. Paul. Let's get things going. When we talk about sustainable gifting, are we talking about giving people reusable water bottles, homemade granola? I mean, sure those things are pretty sustainable. But before we get to specific sustainable gift ideas, and trust me, we got plenty. Let's fast forward a bit after the shopping, the wrapping, the unwrapping, the oohs and the ahs. Okay, let's pause there. How many of you have been left with the guilt of opening a gift, holding it in your hands and knowing that you don't love it?
Katelan (02:30):
It sucks, right? Because someone got you this thing that they thought you need or would enjoy. Yet here you are digging for the gift receipt.
Katelan (02:41):
A lot of gifts get returned. It's why the week from Christmas through New Year's is peak returns week in the US The National Retail Federation estimated that 15% of our holiday purchases last year were returned. That's about $148 billion worth of stuff. The returns platform optoro estimates that only 50% of returns actually wind up back in store inventory. So what happens to the rest of it? Some items go to liquidation warehouses where they're sold to outlet stores and other retailers. But a lot of stuff never gets resold or redistributed. Optoro figures that 6 billion pounds of annual landfill waste in the US comes from returns returned items end up in landfills when the cost of cleaning them, repacking them or transporting them ends up being more than the profit a company would make from selling them. So hear me out. I think becoming a more sustainable gifter actually starts with becoming a more mindful, thoughtful, gifter giving people stuff or experiences they will really enjoy or get a lot of use out of stuff that won't get returned and shipped around to different warehouses and then end up in a landfill. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you should hang on to stuff that you hate. I'm just saying that our gifts are less likely to end up in the returns pile at UPS if we buck the perceived obligations of cost or quantity and focus instead on what people really want. And I know it's easier said than done, I agonize a bit over gifting myself. So we asked our listeners about some of the best sustainable gifts that they've given or received. And as expected, y'all really came through
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Gifting experiences like massages or personal services of some kind, you know, nail salons, haircuts, things like that, or group events like picnics or just like fun activities that are not only ecologically responsible but people really enjoy them. It's less clutter and more memories for everyone involved. It's also why I'm a big gift card person because then the person you're giving a gift to can just buy exactly what they want or need and there's less waste
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Because you put in so much effort in making something, uh, recycling something, upcycling something, it becomes so special for the other person. For example, the cardboards that usually are thrown. I take them and I paint and I give those painting to people.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
I love to get gifts secondhand as well. Um, and this is a controversial thing, but it's really kind of just a beautiful thing to me. Uh, you know, to give this object a new home where it's really, you know it's gonna be loved and appreciated when you find a perfect thing. Oh my gosh, it's lovely. Like, like I found these, um, like miniature vintage clocks and, and I have a friend who's really really into clocks and I knew it would be the perfect gift and they were, you know, they were so old and they just happened to be there and they were so affordable because they were secondhand and all they needed was a new watch battery. So that was a really lovely gift and she really appreciated it a lot.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
Generally I love receiving any sort of family heirloom or item that's sentimental to the person that I'm getting it from. I love anything from my parents that has been passed down or that they really valued at one point in time, that type of stuff. It warms my heart. It's so much more important to me than anything else.
Speaker 6 (06:16):
I love secondhand gifts. I love receiving them. I think it really shows that people are thinking about me taking my belief system into mine when they're buying a gift for me. I know that people can feel weird about getting a secondhand gift or giving a secondhand gift. I feel a little bit weird about giving secondhand gifts to certain people, not to everyone. I can tell you right now my family would not like a secondhand gifts. But yes, some of the my favorite gifts that I've ever gotten were secondhand. It's not for everyone, but if it is for you, I think you should do it.
Speaker 7 (06:53):
I think it shows how much you really know someone. This last Christmas I decided to give all of my family at least one of their gifts secondhand quickly throughout the night. Everyone told me that the Thrifted gifts was their favorite one of the day. This took me by surprise knowing how some of them feel about secondhand shopping. But I think it showed how well I know them.
Speaker 8 (07:12):
I go, uh, book shopping at secondhand stores and if I find a book that I think someone might enjoy, I get that secondhand book and I give it as a gift. There's also some books that I really love myself whenever I see them in the secondhand store, I'll get that one particular book. And I think I have like three copies to sort of have as gifts for people that whenever I feel like, Hey, you could really use this book right now, , I just give them the book.
Speaker 9 (07:39):
I was just given a secondhand gift by one of my closest friends. In fact, just a week ago I met this friend of mine and she was wearing this T-shirt, very cool t-shirt, which said, the climate is changing, why aren't we? And when I looked at it, I told her, this is so cool. I want a T-shirt like this. And she knew I liked it so much that you know, she gave it to me a week after. So that's the gift that I know is of value to me 'cause I'm gonna be using it
Speaker 10 (08:04):
During the pandemic. My sister and I found a lot of comfort in rediscovering our favorite childhood toys and the nostalgia behind it. So for birthdays and Christmases holidays moving forward, we've always bought each other a small piece of our dolls collection that we were missing as a child. And because they don't make them anymore, you know, you have to turn to eBay or Poshmark Facebook marketplace to find these items. So that's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 6 (08:33):
Sustainable giftings important to me because I think we're just kind of told that when we give gifts they have to be new, they have to be expensive to show that we love the other person. And I think that's really opposite of what gifting should be. We really should be like thinking about the person and what's important to them. And also trying to avoid just consumerism just because that's what we've been conditioned to believe is a good gift. Sustainable gifting. When it comes to getting gifts from my friends, it also just means that they're thinking about me as a person and they're taking my values into consideration when they're getting a gift for me. And that just is so special for me.
Speaker 9 (09:15):
Oftentimes what ends up happening is that gift just lies around in the house for who knows, days, weeks, months, or even years before you know it gets tossed out into the garbage or hopefully is regifted. It's important to think about the receiver and whether they'll use the gift unless you know the person really well and are sure that they're gonna like it.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
Get someone a 10 foot long charger cord. 'cause God knows everyone always needs a new phone charger. Like there are things that might be boring, but the people will definitely use and always want and they'll a hundred percent appreciate. Especially like when I'm gifting for someone and I'm having trouble figuring out something that they might want and I don't wanna ask them. A great tip I have is just think about something that they already use every day and really value. And if they need an elevated version of that, if you have someone who like has this like cozy robe that they love and they're always walking around in this robe, but it's like getting really worn down, maybe you get them like a really nice lush version of that.
Speaker 11 (10:12):
I generally do not like stuff For my birthday in 2023, what I really wanted was for my husband to put together a playlist of songs that were inspired by our love story. And for years I'd been hoping he would do this. And of course he didn't because I'm not sharing my feelings with him. Like, hey, this is what I want. So finally I just flat out asked him and he was so excited to be able to give me a gift that I truly wanted. He created the playlist on Spotify and I absolutely loved it. And then for my birthday this year, I said, well I just want you to pick three of the songs and we can slow dance to them. And it was just such a wonderful gift and it went right to my heart. And the best part was, is that there was no physical stuff associated with it.
Speaker 9 (11:04):
This is actually a topic which is pretty close to my heart. , these gifts become status symbols, you know, of how much you've spent on a gift. How about we rise above that? How about we think about the person who's receiving the gift? Is it actually gonna be useful to them? You know, it leads to so much trash on the planet. This new way of thinking about sustainable gifts leads to less trash. It's a win-win for both the gifter and the receiver.
Katelan (11:35):
I asked my coworkers at Commons, what's a gift that you'd really like to get but you haven't yet? Here's some of the answers. One person said they'd like a house cleaning session. I said that I would like someone to take my car to get the oil changed. Someone said, getting my car detailed, fixing holes in my shirts. One person asked for a garden and landscaping help another person asked for someone to clean out their garage. The most common types of gifts that people wanted but weren't receiving were these gifts of service. They're not very sexy, you can't even unwrap them. But a gift of service is essentially a gift of time or expertise. So if you have time or an expertise, you may wanna offer that up as a gift. If there's someone on your gift list who is always busy, maybe they have kids or a long commute or demanding work or school schedule, maybe all those things, the most valuable gift you can get them might just be a chore or an errand or a task of some kind. You know, give it a thought. There's that old gifting adage, it's the thought that counts. But does it really though? Dr. Julian Giy is an associate professor of marketing at West Virginia University and he has done a lot of research on what it takes to be a great gifter.
Katelan (12:59):
Hi Julian, thanks for joining us today.
Dr. Julian Givi (13:01):
Hey, thanks for having me on.
Katelan (13:03):
So one of the key findings from your research is that we as gifters often think we know what people want or need, but we're often wrong. So I wondered if you could talk to us about what gifters get wrong most often.
Dr. Julian Givi (13:18):
Yeah, so I think one of the biggest mistakes we make as gift givers is that whenever we give gifts, we tend to focus on kind of the moment of the exchange. So in other words, we wanna really maximize how happy and fun things are. The moment the recipient takes the ribbon off right, takes some gift, wrapping off went oh wow, and amaze them. But as gift recipients instead, we really are kind of more focused on like the days and weeks and months that follow the gift exchange. And so this kind of leads to a number of instances in which we get it wrong as gift givers. So as one example, gift givers tend to give things that are quite fun but not all that useful. Whereas recipients would prefer to receive things that are more useful and less fun. You can imagine that as a gift giver, I might really like to give you like a chocolate fondue fountain, right?
Dr. Julian Givi (14:01):
That's fun except for, and laugh and smile at the gifting change. But as a recipient, you know, you're kinda like, okay, whatever it's chocolate fondue found and how often am I really going to use this thing? Right? Instead, you might be more receptive to something like a Keurig, right? A little bit more boring or maybe like a toaster oven or a, or an air fry, right? These more boring, utilitarian items that aren't necessarily the most fun thing to receive in that moment, but you're gonna be using them, you know, every day in the months and weeks and years that follow the exchange. So that's just one example of this broader idea that when we give gifts we tend to really focus on sort of the moment of the exchange. But as recipients who really kind of tend to focus more on the days, the weeks, the months, the years that follow the gift exchange. So that's one of the, I think, primary things that we get wrong as gift givers.
Katelan (14:44):
Was there any sort of type of gift that was almost always not given but was almost always well received?
Dr. Julian Givi (14:52):
So we can divide gifts in a number of different categories. Some examples of things that fall into the category of things that we'd like to give as give gifters that are kind of fun. The moment they're open are things like, like I said, fun gifts or very desirable flashy gifts or material items tend to be given a lot. Same thing with like very superficial kinds of items. And those are all the items that are kind of good. The moment that the boat comes off. The things that are kind of better in the long run are things like experiences or like I said, useful gifts or sentimental gifts or uh, gifts that are easy to use. We can kind of dichotomize gifts in a number of different ways. And kind of when we think about 'em like that, really what we find is, like I said, that we give the things that are exciting to give in the moment, but we're more reflective the things that are good in the long run.
Katelan (15:36):
You brought up sentimental gifts. I find these so interesting because when they're really good, they're good, but it can make the gifter feel very vulnerable and I can feel very high pressure. So I was just wondering if you could tell us what you found when it comes to sentimental gifting.
Dr. Julian Givi (15:52):
What we found is that whenever people give gifts, they tend to shy away from sentimental items and instead they opt for more superficial items. Things like bottles of wine or maybe a sports jersey or a gift card or you know, these more superficial things. And the reason we offer these superficial things is because they're very safe to give, right? If I live in Pittsburgh, if I give someone a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey, I know they're gonna like it, right? Or if I give someone an Amazon gift card, it might not be the best gift in the world, but they're gonna like it to some degree. But on other hand, with sentimental gifts, like you hinted right there, there's, there's some risk involved number of respects, right? It makes you feel a little bit vulnerable. You might worry a little bit about like, okay, is this maybe a little bit too much, right?
Dr. Julian Givi (16:31):
Or would they have rather received something more superficial, right? Yeah. As opposed to something more sentimental. And so to give them all these risks, we often shy away from sentimental gifts, but unfortunately we, we shy away from giving them even though recipients really, really like receiving them. So the way I kind of look at this is like oftentimes gift givers, they go for these superficial items 'cause they're like the sure single, if we're using like a baseball analogy, right? . Whereas sentinal gifts that we kind of view them as sort of like they can either be a home run but they go also potentially be a striker. At least that's how we see them, right? But for recipients, what we find in our research is that they seem to be home runs more often than not. And you kind of just think back to any of the times that you've received or even given a sentimental gift.
Dr. Julian Givi (17:13):
They do often tend to be really, really hits, right? Anytime someone asks me like, okay, what's the best gift you ever given or received? Almost all always IIII think back to a sentimental gift, right? And, and the other nice thing about seminal gifts I'll say is that it's kind of, kind of very interesting in my opinion. There's this thing in marketing and consumer behavior called hedonic adaptation. And what that means is that our enjoyment with items tend to go down over time. So for example, I have this iPhone here, right? Initially when I get an iPhone I'm very happy with it, right? But over time my happiness kind of decreased, right? I kind of get used to it. I know all the features and functions, whatever with sentimental items that doesn't happen. We're happy this moment we get it and we stay happy over time, right? So that's kind of cool and kind of a, an added benefit. So one recommendation I do give people is if you're kind of struggling with something to give, if you feel comfortable enough doing it, go ahead and give something sentimental, do a scrapbook. Even honestly a written note of how much you appreciate the person. 'cause those really do tend to be hits and go go a long way with recipients.
Katelan (18:11):
That sounds really nice. And those are probably tend to be more sustainable I'd imagine too. .
Dr. Julian Givi (18:17):
Yeah, a hundred percent right. You take out a, even just an email, a note of appreciation, right? We just send it to people and that's zero right? Impact pretty much.
Katelan (18:25):
Yeah. We've also heard from a lot of sustainable minded folks that they would love to receive more experiential gifts or even gifts of service. And I'm wondering how that plays out in your research how people typically receive experiential gifts.
Dr. Julian Givi (18:38):
Yeah, so this actually this, this like I referred to earlier, the material experiential dichotomy is another example where givers tend to offer these more material items, but as recipients we actually do tend to prefer experiential items more than givers kind of anticipate. Mm-hmm . And not only is there kind of a mismatch between what givers give and recipients wanna receive, but experiences have a number of kind of psychological benefits in addition to the kind of the sustainable ones that you had mentioned. So first of all, when it comes to experiences, and this is not only experiential gifts, but also anytime we're doing an experiential consumption, we tend to kind of extract more happiness out of those compared to comparable material items, right? So that's one kind of nice benefit. Yeah. And the second thing is that in the gift giving world, whenever we receive an experiential gift that actually brings us closer to the gift giver compared to receiving a comparable material gift. So that's another kind of added benefit. So in some, there seemed to be a number of really nice benefits that come, you know, psychological benefits that come from receiving and giving experiential gifts.
Katelan (19:39):
You, you've brought up two in some of your work how social situations can impact how we feel like we need to gift. For example, if I give a friend a gift at her birthday party and she opens it in front of everyone, like that's a different kind of pressure. So I don't know if you have any tips or advice or just learnings from how we can think about or maybe ignore the social situation in order to get a gift that is actually something that people will enjoy.
Dr. Julian Givi (20:04):
Yeah. So in terms of the social context, the research that I did in that deals with how we spend as a function of what we either think or know the other people at the gift exchange you're gonna be spending, right? So if I go to a birthday party and I think or know that the other gift givers who are attending are gonna be giving very kind of expensive gifts, I'll then be more likely to kind of go ahead and give an expensive gift as well in comparison to if I'm going to the birthday party and I think that they're giving cheaper gifts there, right? So it's very much a kind of a keeping up with a Joneses type of thing. And in fact in a working paper that I'm on, we actually looked at gift registries, we find that people do kind of anchor on the prices of the gifts that come before them, right?
Dr. Julian Givi (20:43):
So if like someone from earlier in the list picks an expensive gift, I'll take an expensive gift. If they pick a cheaper gift, I'll go with a cheaper gift, right? But actually, so while gift givers behave in this manner, just keeping up with the Joneses manner, what we find is that a recipient's appreciation doesn't really depend too much on what other people give, right? Mm-Hmm. As an example, if you give me, let's say a $20 gift card and someone else gives me a $30 gift card, I'm gonna like your $20 gift card just as much as if that other person gave me a $10 gift card, right? Yeah. So these, these kind of keeping up with the Joneses one-upping behaviors while we do them, they don't necessarily seem to impact, you know, the long run or you know, the happiness of the recipient after all. And as you could probably imagine some cases they might not be the most sustainable things in the world either if we're going for something super duper expensive or either, you know, buying something that's not sustainable or that they end up getting returned. Right? And obviously that's probably a bigger issue than if it's a cheaper gift getting returned, right? Mm-hmm,
Katelan (21:38):
a hundred percent. That's really good to hear. That's very reassuring. Um, so we've talked quite a bit about how to be a better gifter, um, but I'd love to figure out if there's ways to set expectations as a gift receiver. Um, we had a question from a listener named Deb in Michigan and they asked, how can I talk to my family about their over gifting and how it's impacting my ability to raise my kids in alignment with my values?
Dr. Julian Givi (22:05):
Yeah. So it's always tough when you come to this idea of like telling gift givers what you want to receive and what you don't wanna receive, right? Because in doing so, you're basically implicitly or explicitly breaking kind of a norm of gift giving, which is kind of like, hey, just be open to whatever people are giving you, right? Mm-Hmm , uh, there's a number of instances we kind of see in the real world where people do do this. They kind of tell them in some way or another what to give me or what not to give me. And people do tend to listen. So a few examples of this, you might be familiar for example, of what's called a no gifts Christmas. So this is the idea whenever a consumer or a person basically tells all their friends and family like, Hey, in this year I'm not giving anyone anything for the winter holidays, please don't give anything to me either.
Dr. Julian Givi (22:47):
And so with this, by and large people tend to listen. They say, okay, well that's, that's fine. You know, we can skip this person this year. Mm-hmm. gift registries, right? Whenever we're doing a gift registry, we are telling them, hey like give me something off the registry. And by and large people tend to listen to that. Or, or another example of it is like you often see sometimes for, for various occasions people say, you know, in lieu of gifts just make a donation, my name, right? And people do tend to listen to that. So while it can be a little bit uncomfortable kind of violating this norm, right? By telling people what to give me or what not to give me, right? What seems to happen is that when you do it, people do listen.
Katelan (23:22):
So I wanna depose kind of a tricky scenario which I've seen a couple times. So let's say that you're trying to get rid of plastic in your life, you have your reusable water bottle, your reusable coffee cup, all that stuff. And you have a friend or a family member and they're buying those big pallets of water bottles every week and you personally want to see them not do that so much. So maybe you think, hey, I'll get them like a Brita filter and I'll get them a reasonable water bottle. I'm kind of wondering like is it ever okay to gift someone a gift that you think they should have? They've not necessarily said to you, Hey, I wanna ditch water bottles, but you're thinking they should be doing this.
Dr. Julian Givi (23:57):
This might be a little bit of long answer, but one of the most interesting things I found whenever I started studying gift giving is heading into it. I thought gift giving was all about buying a gift for the person that you think they're gonna like. But what I've learned over the years and found in my own research and the research of others is that oftentimes we don't do that. We basically give people the gift that we wanna give them, right? You think about like a gift registry, right? They're telling us what they want. A lot of times we listen to them. A lot of times we say, no thanks, I'm gonna give you something else that I wanna give to you. Right? Right. And so this would be one example of that research has kind of touched on this a little bit. So there's been like some economics research on sort of parents giving their children gifts that they think are kind of, you know, aligning with the values they want the children to have, right?
Dr. Julian Givi (24:36):
So for example, you might give your child a book as opposed to a video game Mm-Hmm to kind of point them down the right, you know, educational path, right? And what I will say is the closest research I can think of to the scenario you're describing here is actually research on giving gifts that kind of relate to your own hobbies and interests as opposed to the recipient. What this research actually finds is, it's a really, really interesting and counterintuitive finding is that whenever a gift giver gives a recipient a gift that kind of aligns with the giver's own passions and interests as opposed to those of the recipient that is more likely to bring the two parties closer together. Just to kind of highlight this as a WVU professor, if I give a friend of mine who is let's say a Penn State alumni a WV banner, right?
Dr. Julian Givi (25:19):
That's more likely to bring him closer to me as opposed to if I just give him a Penn State uh, banner, which is kind of interesting. So you can imagine in this scenario, right, if you're giving your friend kind of these more sustainable products or, or you know, whatever they may be, that may end up bringing the two of you closer together and the reason this is happening is you're kind of opening up to your friend and saying, Hey, this is something I care about. This is something I value, I think I'd like to share it with you. Right? And that's sort of what ends up driving, you know, this kind of relational boost. So that's kind of the closest thing I can think of to to this idea, but it kind of does suggest that like if you try it out right, it might end up having a nice kind of boost your relationship.
Katelan (25:54):
That's fascinating. That's really cool to hear. I have one more question before we go. I had to ask about the old gifting adage. It's the thought that counts. You've done so many studies on gifting and I'm wondering how much the thought actually counts and if and what else counts whenever we're thinking about gifting,
Dr. Julian Givi (26:10):
Right? So there's been kind of some conflicting theories, I guess if you will in the, in the academic research on does thoughtfulness really matter? And kind of the a theory that my co collaborators and I have put forward recently is that it depends on, on the reason why you're being thoughtful. We kind of characterize thoughtfulness in two different ways. So on one hand you can imagine that oftentimes we thoughtful when gift giving, not because we want to give the recipients something they like, but because we just want to feel thoughtful. Hmm. So it's for example, thoughtfulness such as, you know, spending a lot of time creating something very sentimental or like we were talking about earlier, like a handwritten note or a scrapbook, right? That's a thoughtfulness that might be prized by the recipient or if you spend a lot of effort driving across the city, get them a product that's only available in a certain store, right? That's another example of thoughtfulness that really will go a long way in the recipient's eyes and with these latter categories of thoughtfulness, you're being thoughtful in order to make the recipient happy and that's when it really ends up counting. So that would be my answer to does the thought count in gifting?
Katelan (27:12):
So the thoughtfulness matters if you're thinking about the person receiving the gift, which sounds very obvious but I think it's a really, really good reminder for all of us.
Dr. Julian Givi (27:21):
A hundred percent.
Katelan (27:22):
Well thank you so much. I find this stuff absolutely fascinating and I'm really grateful that you took the time to come and talk to us today.
Dr. Julian Givi (27:29):
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me on.
Katelan (27:37):
So we have heard some amazing sustainable gift ideas and gotten cold hard research on the types of gifts that people actually love. But I wanted to dive a little bit more into our bank accounts and our trash bins. So I called up commons founder, Sanchali Seth Pal.
Sanchali (27:57):
Hey Katelan.
Katelan (27:58):
So have you started your holiday shopping yet?
Sanchali (28:01):
Um, no I have not. . I actually find buying gifts like really hard and stressful and so I've really procrastinate. I find it so hard to buy something you think someone will actually use in love and I really feel there's nothing worse than receiving a gift you don't want and now have to figure out how to get rid of.
Katelan (28:20):
It's so hard and it makes me feel so guilty.
Sanchali (28:23):
It really does. 'cause people have put so much time and effort and money into buying stuff for you and gifting is expensive. Yeah. According to the National Retail Federation, the average person spent $875 on end of year gifts and celebrations in 2023.
Katelan (28:39):
Wow. Most
Sanchali (28:40):
Of that happens over just a five day period. From Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday the US had a record over 200 million shoppers and folks spend between 300 to $500 each just during those five days. We see this happening in the commons community too. Uh, we see an uptick in the commons community spending around the holidays and the holiday months are when folks spend the most on goods and services in particular. And that spending is growing year on year. In 20 23, 60 2% of our community spending was on goods and services and that's 18% higher than in 2022.
Katelan (29:14):
Wow. I feel like all that extra money and carbon really makes what's supposed to be a joyful time. Like kind of stressful honestly.
Sanchali (29:22):
Absolutely. My biggest takeaway from looking at the data is that gifting is super expensive and it can create clutter and waste for people receiving gifts. So gifting less, gifting, more intentionally embracing giving experiences, sentimental gifts, re-gifting, these are all ways to cut down on the culture of consumption.
Katelan (29:39):
Yes, love that. Another thing that happens around the holidays is that we rack up a lot of waste, especially packaging.
Sanchali (29:46):
Oh my gosh, yes. The gift drops in boxes are such a big part of the excess waste and the landfill around the holidays. The EPA estimates that plastic and other packaging waste makes up about 30% of total US waste every year. It really piles up after the holidays too. Last year for instance, where you are in la, the city collected eight times more cardboard in January than they did in December.
Katelan (30:09):
I can see it, I see those bins filling up at the curb. So many boxes. And when it comes to gift wrap, a lot of what we actually toss in our recycling bin perhaps aspirationally isn't actually recyclable.
Sanchali (30:22):
That's such a bummer.
Katelan (30:23):
I know wrapping paper is just generally too thin and drenched in ink that it makes it really hard to recycle. You should definitely not recycle wrapping paper that's glossy because it's coated with enough plastic that it's not recyclable and the sink goes for those metallic gif wraps or wrapping paper with lots of that metallic glitter in it.
Sanchali (30:41):
that They're so pretty
Katelan (30:43):
. I know.
Sanchali (30:44):
Okay, so if we receive a GIF wrapped in glittery glossy paper, we can't recycle it, we can save it and reuse it or we should just wrap our gif with uncoated paper, which can be recycled or composted.
Katelan (30:58):
Oh for sure. And maybe a little bit of a silver lining here is if you get some of those papers, they're generally like more forgiving whenever you try to like un crinkle them, right? So just open them carefully and make it so it's easy for you touse them. I've definitely done it before and I've actually started keeping a stack of butcher paper. You know when you get butcher paper in an e-commerce package, just like the brown uncoated paper, I like to keep that and I flatten it out and I paint like big abstract like easy patterns on them and I reuse that as gift wrap and I haven't bought gift wrap in years. Oh my
Sanchali (31:29):
Gosh, I love that sounds so pretty and special and personalized. Yeah, I do that. I save all of my gift wrapping and ribbons and bags. I don't think I've ever bought gift wrap before because you just reuse what you get.
Katelan (31:43):
Yeah, you have to. You
Sanchali (31:44):
Know, this is actually another perk of secondhand shopping that I hadn't thought of.
Katelan (31:49):
Hmm, what do you mean? Well, like
Sanchali (31:50):
If you buy a toy or a blender or something like that new, those things come packaged in lots of plastic and like giant boxes, but when you buy it secondhand, you're skipping the plastic phase and getting more life out of them that could otherwise end up in a landfill.
Katelan (32:05):
It's so true. And I mean honestly, especially when I think back at like being a kid and opening toys, those little bits of like shrink wrap plastic is the worst part of opening any gift . So I'm very happy to not have to do that.
Sanchali (32:18):
It's so annoying. And then also like as an adult or parent, you have to actually throw that stuff out and it ends up in the recycling bin and most of that isn't even recycled. Less than 10% of the plastic foam is actually recycled.
Katelan (32:31):
Ugh. It's rough. So the less stuff that we can buy new including gift wrap, the less waste we're gonna bring to the bin at the end of each year. Exactly. We're buying used stuff or non-physical things. We're re-gifting and reusing and we might just have the lightest, most financially and emotionally fulfilling holiday season yet. Oh, that sounds so nice. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Katelan (32:59):
So how about it? How about we become mindful gifters unburdened by the pressures of cost and obligation and start gifting some stuff that people really, really love. How about we give people the gift of time for an experience or a secondhand gem that just seems like it was destined for them to have it? And sometimes we might just have to ask for what we want or don't want and that's okay. How about we spare ourselves the stress of spending a bunch of cash and give ourselves the luxury of spending more time with the people we love? I know it sounds cheesy, but it's true. Okay. If you need even more gift ideas, I've got some fantastic news. Me and the Commons team, curated sustainable gift ideas for your mom, for your brother, for your friend's, kid gifts on a budget, gifts of service, secondhand gifts basically for every person and every situation on your list. We have got you covered. There are hundreds, literally hundreds of great gift ideas and you'll find all of these gift guides at the link in our show notes. And don't forget to follow us on Instagram at Second Nature Earth. We'll be sharing some great gift ideas there too. Thanks to all of our listeners who shared their favorite sustainable gifts today. You heard from,
Katelan (34:18):
Our editor and engineer on this episode. And every episode is Evan Goodchild. It was written and produced by me, Kaitlyn Cunningham. Next week we are reckoning with one of the things that lots of our listeners say. They just can't give up dairy cheese and there will be a plant-based cheese taste test. Until then, happy gifting.
Speaker 7 (34:51):
Gosh, my dog's drinking water. I really hope you can't hear that flash. Okay, I'll wait for him to stop just in case it messes this up. Sorry it's taking so long. I just don't want his gulping to be in this flash.