Well, like Sheryl Crow or not, that doesn’t change the fact that giving gifts inside reusable shopping bags is a smart choice. They cost about the same or less than a fancy paper bag, and they just might be a gift to the earth as well.

Of course you can’t force your gift recipient to use the bags for shopping, but they are sure to comment on the unique choice. That’s your chance to explain why you take your own bags to the store. I’ve found bags like this are also helpful in sorting recycling as well.

And the bag featured from Whole Foods is made of 80% post-consumer plastic bottles. So, not only it is saving plastic from being used, but it’s also keeping plastic bottles out of landfills!

Even if you don’t choose Whole Foods Market bags, I do hope you’ll consider wrapping your holiday gifts in recycled paper or reused fabric.

Previous gift wrap posts at Light Green Stairs:

The way we used to wrap gifts?
Catalog sheets as gift wrap
Do you hate to wrap gifts?
If you really want paper

Image via Whole Foods.

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UPDATE: August 2009, SIGG bottles made prior to August 2008 contain trace amounts of BPA.

Isn’t it lovely? (Sorry about the glare on the photo. It’s so nice it shines.)

Since a main focus of this blog is sharing steps I take to be greener in my everyday life, I thought I’d tell you about my new best friend: My SIGG bottle. (It may seem like I’m bragging a little too much on this bottle, but I promise I did pay for it myself. This is my unbiased review.)

I stopped buying bottled water a few years ago. It’s too heavy, too expensive and too too wasteful.

What are the reasons people consume bottled water on a regular basis? (I understand the occasional emergency bottle.)

•Tap water doesn’t taste good.

•No handy water container to take on the go.

Here’s what I do:

I purify my tap water with a Brita water pitcher. One filter lasts a couple months. I keep the pitcher in the refrigerator so I always have cold water on hand. You can also buy filters that fit on the faucet, but I’ve had bad experiences with those breaking. It just so happens that Brita is having a Filter For Good campaign right now. You can take a pledge to reduce your bottled water consumption and get a coupon for Brita pitchers and filters.

To solve the problem of having a water container on hand I used some plastic water bottles for years. However, Michael would complain about the water tasting like plastic after it had been in the bottle for a bit. So, yeah, I started to notice this too.

That’s where SIGG came in. It’s made of a solid piece of aluminum — no plastic to leach. Tests have shown 0 leaching. The bottles are 100 percent recyclable, and the bottle lining is water-based and non-toxic. It’s baked into the interior walls, but does not crack.

Another plus for me is the cool cap. You can buy a more traditional cap, but the one it comes with can also act as a nice handle. When I take it out shopping with me (because I always get thirsty), I can drop it into my shopping bags and not worry about it leaking. No snap top to pop off.

Perhaps the biggest plus with my new SIGG is that the cat can’t dip his paws into it. How relaxing — I can leave it unguarded in the living room!

SIGG bottles are also not as prone to leaking as plastic bottles can be. If the seal in the cap is worn, you can purchase another cap easily. The bottle itself is very durable. I can’t imagine anything crushing it. Maybe a giant Hummer might dent it though. Yeah, probably a Hummer would kill my SIGG.

Where to buy? Whole Foods Markets, among other places. Go to SIGG for a complete list. I got mine from reusablebags.com. As you probably know by now, I’m so in love with them.

Enough about my water bottle. What do you use?

I’m so bad when it comes to getting stains on my clothes. It’s usually food on shirts. It’s uncool to donate stained clothing to charity, but if you can sew you can magically remove the stain and turn the fabric into other things, like bags and scarves or dog toys.

Anyway, for you sewers out there, www.morsbags.com is a great site to visit. They encourage sewing parties to make reusable shopping bags out of old fabric. That sounds like fun!

Morsbags.com includes instructions on how to make morsbags as well as facts about the evils of plastic shopping bags. You can also send them photos of your creations.

I wonder, will this finally inspire me to sew?