b'Making HolidayTraditions Sustainable How to map the road to eco gift-wrap and moreBY GEORGIA MADIBASustainable actions may take time andinvestment upfront; afterwards, how-ever, they pay for themselves over and over again. This red fabric wrap was bought more than 15 years ago and has been used every season since.W henyoureachild,alternatively the newspapers cartoon page,to you arent able to un- were our gift wrap, and stood out next derstandandappreci- to other presents wrapped in season-ate each layer of yourally designed paper with coordinat-familystraditionsbe- ing stick-on bows.causeyouseethemAt a young age, I became con-asawhole.Overthecerned about the increasing amount years Ive unfolded my familys holiday traditions,of waste generated by humans. Where identifying sustainability as one of the many layers.did it all go? Could the planet sustain it? Whether it was our gift-giving customs or how weWhat would happen if we kept throwing so muchm y masterminded our holiday meal, I came to realizeaway? Innately, I knew that each of us needed to domother that sustainability was a distinct and deliberate layer,our part to decrease waste, with the first step beingandnow one greatly to be valued, because protecting our en- to avoid it in the first place.myhusband,I vironment wasand isimportant. Duringtheholidaysespecially,Inoticedthathaveacquiredanew In the age before GPS and smart phones, my fa- wrapping paper would have a short life: from gift torespect for the value of rem-ther worked in the American Automobile Associationgarbage. Trash doesnt go away once picked up bynants, those odd-size pieces of leftover fabric. One (AAA) road travel department. His job was to helpthe garbage truck but merely leaves your home andholiday season we visited our local fabric store and, AAA members plan trips on paper maps, marking bybecomes a pollutantof the air if burned, of land ifas we always did, proceeded straight to the remnant hand the best routes. (Yes, paper maps.) A few timesbulldozed into a landfill. Wrapping paper is a single- section in search of fabric that would become reus-a year my father would bring home outdated stacksuse item, much like plastic bags and straws.able holiday wrap. of neatly folded maps and place them in the backI desired to upgrade our recycled-old-map gift- And suddenly there it was, staring right at mea room of our house where gifts could be wrapped inwrap routine to make the wrapping perfectly reusablefew yards of a durable red fabric patterned with little secrecy. Paired with reusable ribbons, those maps, orwith a touch of class. From both my grandmotherswhite stars. I felt I had hit the jackpot. Once home, 44/ matters magazine / holiday 2020'