Did you know that between Thanksgiving and New Year’s there is a 25% spike in waste generation? Holiday gift wrapping is a great contributor to this waste generation during the holiday season.
As we are all trying to be more environmentally friendly, we have listed below a few ideas on how you can wrap gifts this holiday season and be green & stylish at the same time. This holiday season; let’s give a Gift to the Environment too!
There are two main ways we can be environmentally friendly:
§ Reusing existing supplies
§ Using reusable, eco-friendly products
Top 3 - Reusing existing supplies
1. Use your holiday catalogues
They're filling the mailbox whether we have requested them or not, and they are full of colorful pages. Use your favorite pages to wrap small gifts and you'll be surprised at how great they look. If you are giving candles, pencils, or anything cylinder, think about rolling a sheet around the object and then twisting the ends like a candy wrapper. If you are giving more than one gift, stack them and tie the bundle with a ribbon or some kitchen string.
2. Wrap with a map
Clean out the glove compartment and take an outdated or unused map on a new journey. Most maps are large enough to use for wrapping books, clothing, and a number of items. Gifts wrapped with maps can look quite sophisticated and are a creative idea for an office gift exchange. Maps also work well for more masculine looking gifts. If you want to embellish your wrapping, try a brown paper band instead of a traditional bow.
3. Newspapers and magazines
Old newspapers and magazines make great wrapping paper. Use the sports section of the paper for your brother, colour comics for the younger kids, glossy fashion magazine pages for your teenaged cousin. Tie with inexpensive yarn or ribbons you saved from last year. Looking for a gift-wrapping idea that’s really original and exotic-looking? Pick up some Chinese newspapers in Chinatown!
Top 3 – Reusable, eco-friendly products
1. Dishtowels, placemats, and table cloths
For the friend or relative who loves to cook, wrap gifts in pretty dish towels. Or give her a nifty, new kitchen tool that you’ve bundled into a set of placemats, then tie with recycled ribbon. Get that old tablecloth you haven’t used in five years, cut it up and use the pieces to wrap gifts. An easy way to do it is to gather the ends of the fabric at the top of the present, and tie them together with some raffia or ribbon recycled from last year.
2. Scarves, blankets, towels, and Christmas stockings
Make the wrapping part of the gift! Soft wrapping paper alternatives that are great gifts, like scarves, baby blankets, and beach towels It’ll give them a little hint as to what's inside, but your creative wrapping will get years of use. Tie the gifts with ribbon, string, twine or raffia. Christmas stockings are a great alternative as well.
3. Nature
Some of the best decorations for your gifts can be found in backyards, beaches and fields. Sprigs of berries, branches, shells and pinecones are naturally beautiful and don’t require any manufacturing at all … just a short hike.
A couple of things to keep in mind when wrapping gifts:
1. The key to using ribbon and string with a green mindset is to use pieces that are long enough to easily reuse. Bows always look pretty left with long tails, or you can wrap an existing length of ribbon twice around a small box.
2. Try opting out of tape by making tightly creased folds as you wrap, securing it by tying up the package tightly (in two directions) with natural twine or wool yarn that can be reused.
3. The next time someone gives you a present, save that paper (and the ribbons, too)!
4. If you can avoid wrapping a present, do so!
