Last week I mentioned that eLuxury was getting rid of their paper catalogs now another luxury retailer has taken an environmental step forward. Nordstrom has announced that they will introduce environmentally friendly packaging options for customers throughout 2008. They will offer fully recyclable shopping bags and gift boxes and will also sell reusable shopping tote. Over the next year the company's paper shopping bags will evolve to be 100 percent recyclable. Old boxes and bags that are not recyclable will be phased out and over the coming months new paper bags with recyclable cotton handles will be phased in and for the holidays the company will offer gift boxes made of 100 percent recycled paper stock that is 30 percent post-consumer waste.

The reusable shopping totes will have a cityscape illustration by artist Ruben Toledo. The metallic brushed linen tote will zip into a small rectangle case for easy storage. It will sell for $21.95.