The 10 best eco-friendly gifts in 2021

By Alex Hughes

Published: Wednesday, 22 December 2021 at 12:00 am

It can be hard to buy gifts for your environmentally conscious friends. You don’t want to buy something that will produce waste and a lot of products require immense amounts of energy to be made.

Luckily, the eco-friendly market has exploded over the years, offering loads of fantastic products and gifts that wont leave behind a large carbon footprint in the process.

These include products made with sustainable materials, smart technology to reduce wastage and products with a reusable system to replace the throwaway items you might have in your house.

Whatever the event, we’ve picked out a collection of some of the best eco-friendly gifts you can get in 2021.

The 10 best eco-friendly gifts

WAFE Beeswax food wrap

Forget tupperware, beeswax wraps are a much more eco-friendly alternative to protecting your food and, they look much nicer too! With these beeswax wraps from WAFE, you’ll get a pack of six and they’ll throw in 3 reusable silicone lids. Beeswax wraps are 100% organic, made from just cotton and beeswax and can be cleaned with water for an uncomplicated cleaning process.

Buy now from Amazon (£19.99).

Vent for change eco-friendly notebook

A notebook feels like a personal gift for someone who loves the lost art of writing by hand. However, a lot of notebooks can be made with harmful plastics or materials with a high carbon footprint. Vent for Change makes their notebooks with recycled leather and 100% sustainable paper. As an added bonus, money from your purchase goes towards educational projects ran by Vent For Change’s ‘Our Bright Futures’ campaign.

Chillys Series 2 Bottle

Reusable bottles seem to be everywhere now and one of the brands you’ve likely seen the most is Chillys. These bottles come in a huge array of colours and can keep a liquid cold for 24+ hours or hot for 12. These BPA-free water bottles are a great way to leave behind the days of plastic water bottles and have a sturdy reusable bottle for water, coffee, tea or just about any drink you could need.

House of Marley Positive Vibrations headphones

House of Marley has a reputation for creating sustainable audio technology and with the Positive Vibration 2 headphones, you can gift a pretty sustainable pair of headphones. They are crafted using Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood and recyclable metals and fabrics. While the sustainable nature of these headphones are the major selling point, the Vibration 2’s have also won multiple awards for sound quality, while also offering bluetooth connection, noise isolation and an average battery life of 12 hours.

Panda bedding

Okay, so this is by no means a cheap gift for someone but if you’re really looking to splash out, Panda’s 100% bamboo bedding could be the perfect luxury gift. Panda sources its bamboo from sustainably grown forests, requiring a third less water than cotton and requires no pesticides or chemicals. The bedding is designed to get softer the more it is washed and according to Panda, the bamboo material makes this bedding highly breathable – perfect for both summer and winter conditions.

Sprout pencils

These pencils have a unique feature that make them a fantastic gift. Once you’ve finished using them, the end of the pencil can be planted. The pack comes with 8 pencils, each growing a different seed including: Sage, Thyme, Chia and Daisies. The pencils are lead-free and made from sustainable materials, plus the packaging is FSC certified.

Buy now from Amazon (£10.95), eBay (£11.26) and Not On The High Street (£24.95).

Rocketbook reusable notebook

The Rocketbook is a unique and very clever notepad which could make a great reusable gift. The Rocketbook allows you to write on the pages and then simply rub it out when you’re done. Where this differs from a simple whiteboard is that you can scan and save your notes, organising them and allowing you to forward notes to Slack, your email, Dropbox and a host of other apps. This effectively leaves you with an endless use and pretty technical notebook! You can even search for specific words in your notes once you’ve scanned them.

Buy now from Amazon (£29.99)

Green Swing bamboo golf tees

Is there a golf fanatic in your life? If so, these sustainable golf tees could be the perfect gift. The pack includes 30 mixed size bamboo golf tees which Green Swing claims are strong, sustainable and biodegradable. The packs are very affordable and come highly rated on Amazon. Green Swing’s goal is to eliminate the use of plastics in golfing and these tees are a great first step.

Buy now from eBay (£6.99), Amazon (£6.99).

Jungle Culture coconut candle

A candle can make a great present for someone and if you’re looking to get one that is environmentally friendly, Jungle Culture has a brilliant option. This coconut candle is vegan friendly, and completely plastic free. The scents are made using essential oils and its free of parabens (a type of preservative often found in candles). It even comes in a cotton gift bag which saves you the hassle (and wastage) of whipping out the wrapping paper!

Buy now from Amazon (£19.49).

Little Sun Diamond portable lamp

The Little Sun Diamond lamp is a unique product that could be perfect for a eco-friendly camper or just someone that needs a lamp for their garden. Five hours under the sun will give this solar-powered lamp enough energy to power 5 hours of illumination at night at full power, and a few more at low power. The product is resistant to UV and weather damage and by purchasing this lamp, you help the company provide the product at heavily reduced costs to parts of Africa that lack access to grid electricity.

Buy now from Amazon (£59.93).

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