Sustainable Mother's Day

Posted on Tue May 6 2008

By: Jessica Taylor-Cassan in Daily Green Tips

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It’s that time of year again, time to honor our mother’s for all they have done for us and show them how much we appreciate them. Why not appreciate Mother Nature at the same time and celebrate this mother’s day in eco-friendly style. Here are some green gift and celebration ideas for this mother’s day.

This year instead of taking your other out to some expensive and environmentally harmful restaurant why not make her a delicious meal made from all local ingredients. Chances are your mom will appreciate the effort you put into making her dinner and helping the environment at the same time.

Flowers and cards are a big theme for mother’s day. Both can be harmful to the planet so why not try something a little less impactful and a little more original like wildflower cards that she can plant in her garden. These unique cards have wildflower seeds imbedded into them and biodegrade once planted to grow into a beautiful mix of wildflowers. Other things you can do are send electronic cards or give her a potted plant instead of cut flowers that are just going to die in a few days. Potted plants are also helpful as natural air filtration systems. http://www.bloomin.com/about.html is a great site for seed cards which can be used for all occasions.

Jewelry is also very popular for mother’ day but can be one of the most harmful gifts you can give in terms of environmental impact. Try finding something from a responsible jewelry company or maybe even from a vintage store. At last that way you will have a better chance of giving her something original. Jewelry made from recyclable or sustainable materials are another good idea. For some really interesting recycled jewelry check out the following links; http://www.thisnext.com/tag/recycledjewelry/

http://www.greatgreengoods.com/2006/05/22/recycled-jewelry-from-plastic-bags-3/

Candles, perfumes and anything scented should be carefully considered before purchasing. A lot of those kinds of products can be very polluting and harmful for the environment and for you health so be sure to know what you’re buying.

Of course there are much greener gifts to give this mother’s day, consider purchasing carbon credits or protecting a part of the rainforest in your mother’ name or even just making a donation to an environmental organization in her name. You could even adopt an endangered species for her. There are also many green memberships and conservation projects to take part in.

With any holiday the possibilities for environmental destruction are endless and we need to find new ways of expressing our love and honoring hose close to us without creating a lot of unnecessary waste. Mother’s day is a good time to start showing your commitment to sustaining our environment. After all the Earth is mother to us all.