Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Target-ing shopping guilt.

I not only admit it, I embrace it — I love Target. Love love love it. Love everything about it except the fact that I can’t seem to escape it with less than $100 worth of stuff. But I love the stuff — just not the cha-ching.

*But* loving the stuff and the big-box store presents a dilemma for those of us who also want to live a little greener. Enter an awesome article from Grist environmental news and commentary — a gift guide for eco-minded shoppers headed to the big-box trifecta (Target, Wal-Mart and/or Kmart).

A couple of Grist staffers named Sarah (Van Schagen and Burkhalter) actually hit the stores to see how they do on the eco-friendly shopping scale. The best news? Target was the tree-huggiest of the trio!

Target hit the mark, with the most eco-friendly gift options, and a recent pledge to phase out PVC. Environmentally copacetic holiday stuff here included recycled-paper greeting cards, a sizeable selection of wooden toys, organic-cotton bedding and baby onesies, and (my favorite) soy candles and other green-home goods by Method.

Wal-Mart was the runner-up, with only a few eco-friendly items, but a bevy of behind-the-scenes green efforts — like reducing energy use at new stores, tracking suppliers’ energy efficiency and pushing vendors to cut down their packaging. Wal-Mart does provide reusable shopping totes at their registers, and also offers a small selection of good stuff like bamboo-blend sheets.

Kmart’s blue light ain’t turning green anytime soon; eco-pickings there were near-nil. Some plush pet toys made from EarthRite Fiber, a polyester filling made from recycled PET plastic bottles, were about it.

To read the whole article (which also contains some great eco-gift ideas), go to http://www.grist.org/feature/2007/11/19/boxing/index.html.

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