The holiday season creates a lot of additional waste through gift giving and single use items, but there are several brands working right out of Louisville that use sustainable practices – allowing you to give high-quality gifts with the environment in mind.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the volume of household waste in the United States increases approximately 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day – which adds up to approximately 1 million extra tons of waste.
This high number comes from non-recyclable wrapping paper, bows, packaging, and unwanted gifts that are quickly discarded, contributing to methane in landfills and wasting resources from production and shipping. All of which the average person contributes to each year.
Louisville’s Local Perspective
Locally, there are a few brands and storefronts that prioritize using sustainable practices that you can shop at this holiday season from “pre-loved” textiles to reusable packaging.
The Anchal Project, a Louisville-based brand and nonprofit social enterpirse, started by sisters, Colleen and Maggie Clines sells both apparel and home products made with organic cotton, recycled materials, and non-toxic dyes.
Anchal works with marginalized women in India, through a nongovernment organization there, to teach them how to sell products they create. The artisans and other staff members working for Anchal in India also receive benefits, like the ability to participate in workshops, paid-time off, a flexible work environment and access to healthcare though annual health camps.
“They learn how to sell and the products that they create, we market and sell here and our store and online and through wholesale, etc,” Colleen Clines said. “Every piece is hand stitched by the artisans that we work with, and they’re made of either vintage saris or organic cottons or really driven by sustainable materials and ethical production.”
How The Anchal Project Began
Colleen and Maggie Clines started the brand in their mid-20s after completing undergraduate and graduate school. Combining their design skills and interest in helping other, they decided to create a brand with emphasis on sustainable and ethical practices.
“If we were going to make the effort to put it all together, we wanted to try our best to do right by the women that we work with, but also the planet,” Clines said. “It’s not always easy, because it does cost more, but I think the value system aligns with both elements to kind of make sure that we’re trying to do the best we can if we’re going to produce goods.”
To Colleen, being able to find brands that aligns with your personal values are the most exciting part of being a consumer.
“I think what’s really exciting as a consumer is that we have a lot of power to align our value system with the purchases that we make and make changes accordingly,” Clines said. “When someone purchases something through Anchal, they really make a huge difference, not only in our local economy in Louisville that supports our team here, but also the women that make it. You’re buying it with fair trade practices and sustainability in mind, but also, yeah, there’s a guarantee that it’s a high quality product.”
Another local brand Green Folk Collective started by designer Mallory Quisenberry. The brand uses vintage textiles to create bags, quilt coats and more.
“Green Folk Collective is a way that can make old textiles new and also make unique things that you can’t really get anywhere else,” Quisenberry said. “The main thing I end up doing most of the time, is custom quilt coats, but also do all kinds of other upcycling.
Quisenberry creates coats, holiday stockings and bags from “pre-loved” textiles such as quilts and denim. To her, it allows her to create a quality item without adding to waste. Additionally, she typically saves packages she receives to re-use them when shipping out orders instead of buying new packages.
“I think that it’s a really great opportunity using pre-loved textiles, because if you take the time to do a little bit of curating, not only can you get better fabric, and also it’s not going to go to waste,” Quisenberry said. “I love vintage fabrics, but I like to take the time to go and find something that’s high quality, and then being able to reuse that something about that is exciting for me. So it’s definitely about the environment, but it’s also about being able to make something that nobody else has.”
Other Reasons To Shop Locally In Louisville This Holiday
Shopping locally also directly allows you to cut down on waste by shopping in-person or not requiring items to be shipped from a far away place.
To Quisenberry, the phrase “shop small” means a lot to her because it allows consumers to make a direct impact on someone’s life rather than spending money at larger corporations.
“The reason that you shop small, one of the biggest ones is you can have a direct impact on the life of somebody,” Quisenberry said. “An example would be people who purchase something for me from me that directly impacts my life. I could go and now I’ll be able to go fill up my car with gas, or go do something else like that that has a direct positive impact on my life. And I think we forget about how cool is it that you can actually make a difference in somebody’s life,
and the big corporations don’t really care. I think it’s important to shop where your dollar matters and where it means something.”
Quisenberry encourages gift givers to take a second to consider the longevity of a present when purchasing. She said to ask yourself: “Is this something that they’re going to be able to either use, wear or enjoy for longer than a short period of time? Or is it something that is seen as disposable?”
“I think overall, that’s something that is very important to me with the work that I do and the stuff that I make, is that I try to look at it from the perspective of this is also more sustainable, because it’s good quality, and you’re not going to have to keep buying it,” She said. “It’s an intentional purchase that is of a higher quality that’s going to last.”
In the start 2026, Green Folk Collective will have a new collection releasing with children’s items for the first time ever. Quisenberry also mentioned that Green Folk Collective’s products will be selling in Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California.
“I’ll make it special to the specific person I’m wrapping it for.”
In addition to shopping locally and finding businesses that use sustainable practices, Quisenberry recommends saving boxes to use for presents rather than buying boxes.
“I think the biggest one I’d recommend that’s easy to do is, of course, save your granola bar boxes, and use that to wrap some of your gifts,” she said. “I started doing something a couple years ago that’s kind of fun. It does take a little bit of time, but, you know, I think some things that are worthwhile take a little bit of extra time.”
Another large use of waste during the holiday season is wrapping paper. Instead of buying wrapping paper, Quisenberry suggests wrapping presents using paper bags saved from shopping and decorating them using old magazines can add a personal flair.
“I have had so much fun getting old magazines or old books or whatever it is, maybe even just some butcher paper, and then wrapping my gifts in that,” Quisenberry said. “I’ll make it special to the specific person I’m wrapping it for.”
Other gift ideas can include memberships to places that prioritize nature education and conservation such as the Louisville Nature Center, or the Waterfront Botiancal Gardens. Memberships at either of these places is less than $100 for individuals and have family memberships available that include children and adult activites for one set price.
This article appears in Dec. 1-31, 2025.