Zero Waste Father’s Day Gift Ideas
Just like any other ‘special days’, Father’s Day has gone from being a nice way to celebrate your wonderful dad, to a consumerist binge of plastic tat and junk food, all to make the big corporate giants even richer.
Dads are of course the best thing ever, there to protect us, laugh with us, teach us how to make things in the shed or garage, tell us how birds sing and animals work, mend things that break (including our hearts) and overall make the world a better place.
So why on earth would you celebrate all this by purchasing a cheap card wrapped in plastic, and a box of factory-farmed chocolates? Let’s find better ways to honour your dad!
Only send plantable cards to pet-free homes, as many contain toxic herbs and wildflowers. Also most companies use non-native seeds, which are not good for local birds and wildlife.
How much does ‘big business’ make on Father’s Day?
In the UK, Father’s Day is increasingly becoming as profitable as Mother’s Day, with around £700 to £800 million spend on mostly disposable goods (food, ties, socks, alcohol and techy gifts are most popular, with an average cost of around £30.
Yet surveys have found that fathers would rather have ‘quality time’ gifts like a meal out or day trips to somewhere with their sons and daughters.
Celebrated on the third Sunday each June (also for grandfathers and ‘father figures’), the tradition began in 1910 in the USA, where it is also still celebrated. It began as a way for Sonora Smart Dodd to honour her veteran father who had raised six children alone (when she was 16, her mother died in childbirth).
Back then, the method to ‘celebrate’ was holding church sermons and wearing roses (red for a living father, white for a deceased one). How times have changed.
A Dad is someone who wants to catch you when you fall. Instead, he picks you up, brushes you off and lets you try again. Anon
A father’s job isn’t to teach his daughter how to be a lady. It’s to teach her how a lady should be treated. Anon
An eco-friendly father’s day card
This eco-friendly father’s day card is printed on recycled card, and sent in plastic-free eco-friendly packaging.
At least buy something useful!
This HOBO’s basic tool set is a find to mend and repair things for garage tinkerers!
Or how about a nice sustainable vegan belt, to hold up his trousers?!
Or if buying toiletries, go for sustainable men’s grooming products.
Zero waste ideas for Father’s Day
You don’t need to ‘buy anything’, as most dads would likely just prefer a nice forest walk or ‘experience’, rather than a physical gift. Here are a few ideas:
- Hold a backyard vegan barbecue with artisan beer!
- Visit a local art gallery together (many are free)
- Take a nice nature walk together, time to just be.
- Watch a film at an independent cinema
- Take a trip to the local theatre or comedy venue.
Lost your dad? A comforting book to reassure
Grieving the Death of a Father is a book that looks at unique ways to cope, when losing someone close to us. After the physical loss of a father, there are slower processes to go through, as a natural response in a world where (most) people have their fathers live a long time.
But if you’ve lost a father at a younger age than most, you likely have to live through sadness, guilt, memories and the reality of growing up with the man who likely protected you from harm.
Make no mistake about it. The death of a father causes a very significant wound. Some of us tend the wound, some of us ignore it.
But the wound is not that our father died and by his death our world is forever changed. No, the world is that the world around us acknowledged the death for one very brief moment, then skipped merrily on its way.
The author is a former funeral director) and a member of the Association for Death Education and Counselling .
