The Eco Etiquette of Re-Gifting

We’ve discussed the art (and controversy over) re-gifting before, but it’s been a while and with the holiday season approaching and many people looking to both control holiday costs and help the planet stay healthy, we figured we’d go through the basics again. Whether you’re anti- or pro-re-gifting or in between, we think it’s useful to take a scan of this article to remind yourself of the many considerations to make when choosing to pass a gift along to a new recipient this holiday season.

So, Re-Gifting is What?

In case you’re not familiar with the term, we’ll spell it out for you! Re-gifting is exactly what it sounds like. It’s when you take a gift that somebody else gave to you that, for whatever reason, you don’t want or won’t use and you re-wrap it and give it to somebody else. Typically, of course, you don’t alert the other person that this is a re-gifted item and you simply take credit for it. In the ideal world, you’ll be re-gifting the present to somebody who will actually enjoy or want it rather than just passing along that one awful gift that somebody gets each year.

Is Re-Gifting Rude?

Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? And we concede that there are some people out there who are etiquette sticklers who will never, ever be okay with the idea of re-gifting. Our take, to be clear, is that almost any time you give a gift to somebody it’s a kind thing to do. Now, of course, there are some obvious exceptions to that. For example, if the gift is in bad condition or damaged in some way, you shouldn’t re-gift it. And if you know the recipient isn’t going to actually use or like the gift and you’re simply re-gifting it to get rid of it, well, that’s a little bit rude. But if it’s a perfectly functional gift that’s in good condition and you know the recipient would actually appreciate it, who cares where it came from?

There’s also the question of whether it’s rude to the person who originally gave you the gift to re-gift it. The real question is what would you do with it otherwise? Would it just get hoarded in a basement or storage closet? Would you donate it to goodwill? If those are the choices versus giving it a viable life and usage, then we don’t see where the harm is.

Of course, the smart thing to do is to not mention that it’s a re-gift! It may seem smart to you (and us), but as we noted above not everybody is on the re-gifting bandwagon.

Why Is Re-Gifting Eco-Ethical?

There are obviously plenty of reasons that re-gifting is good for the environment, but we’d like to focus on why it’s good for the overall Postconsumer movement. At the heart of the matter, postconsumerism is about understanding that buying “stuff” isn’t always the better option because you’ll never get satisfied and that many of the decisions you make about what and when to buy are driven by a media machine and societal standards that frankly just aren’t grounded in reality. If you have a perfectly good hair dryer (you don’t need) that somebody gave you as a gift, and you have a gift recipient who would love a hair dryer, isn’t there a part of you that actually feels as though what you need to do is go and buy an entirely new hair dryer to give as a gift? Yes, unless you are very advanced on your postconsumer journey your instinct will be that new and store bought is somehow not only better but also more appropriate for a gift. But in reality, there’s no difference between the re-gifted hair dryer and a brand new one. So what is telling your brain that it’s somehow not okay to give the re-gifted hair dryer?

It’s the consumer machine that’s manipulated your entire life programming you to believe that there’s some kind of difference between items you have just bought and items that have been previously touched. But there really is no difference! A hair dryer that somebody gave you and you never took out of the box is no different than the one that’s in the box in the store. But we would be surprised if, in your mind, there isn’t a big difference between the two. The good news about the holidays is that they are close to the New Year and therefore close to resolution time. If you are finding yourself struggling with the idea that a re-gift is somehow less valuable than a newly bought gift, then a great resolution for the upcoming year is to work on separating out from addictive consumerism and false truths.

The Final Say

At the end of the day, the only person who can decide whether it’s okay to re-gift or not is you. All we ask is that you make that determination while being aware of how much your decision is grounded in reality versus media and societal messaging!

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