No plastic waste here! Each of these easy unique gift wrapping ideas will beautifully present gifts without the waste.
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It’s about time Santa’s workshop went green. The North Pole is melting away and if his elves don’t start incorporating sustainable practices then they will have to relocate and no one will be dreaming of a White Christmas. The fairy-tale wonderland will become a distant memory. Although we can’t tell Santa what to do, we can change our Christmas wrapping habits at home.
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If every American family wrapped just 3 presents in re-used materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields. The ways in which we wrap presents plays a huge role in the aesthetic of Christmas, and we can still accomplish this look without sacrificing the North Pole. Gather your holiday spirit, pour yourself a cup of hot cocoa and use these unique gift wrapping ideas. With the hustle and bustle of the season in mind, these tips will be just as easy and convenient as buying new wrapping paper. You may find it shocking just how much waste is actually created from wrapping gifts, so brace yourselves and get ready to flip a 180 on your gift wrapping habits.
Reuse Paper Bags
Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 mature trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, and 380 gallons of oil.
Most of us have them stuffed around the house somewhere, so grab those paper bags and reuse them! Brown paper bags can easily be dressed up to fit the Christmas aesthetic with some reused or recycled tissue paper and twine made from natural fibers. It is easy to make it an art project and paint some designs on the outside of the bag using non-toxic paint. Incorporating the use of paper bags laying around your home to wrap presents will significantly reduce carbon emissions, as we typically generate an additional 7 million pounds of waste between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day”.
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Americans throw away 25% more trash during the Thanksgiving to New Year’s holiday period than any other time of year. The extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week!
Switch To Recycled Wrapping Paper
Merry Berry Recycled Wrapping Paper is made from recycled paper and is 100% recyclable. 2 Meter roll. $14
If you don’t have any paper bags at your house, the next best tip for going zero waste would be to seek out recycled wrapping paper. The same way that you save paper shopping bags, you can also save wrapping and tissue paper from your gifts. As long as the paper is still in good condition, why not use it again? It’s estimated that over the Christmas season we generate an additional 5 million tons of waste from wrapping paper and shopping bags alone. So, save the wrapping paper and reuse it for unique gift wrapping ideas to reduce waste. Or, if you have to purchase new, look for companies and brands that make wrapping paper from recycled paper. Both are sustainable options to ensure that no new trees were harmed in the wrapping of your gift.
Purchase Natural Wrapping Paper
Petal Cornflour Wrapping Paper features 20 sheets of handmade paper made using a traditional method in Nepal. Lokta paper is prepared from the fibrous bark of the Daphine Cannabina, or Lokta. The bark is boiled and beaten with wooden mallets to produce a pulp which is poured into wooden frames and sun-dried. $14
Another tip is to go natural. You may be familiar with wrapping paper that contains glitter, or a smooth shiny surface. That luminous shine isn’t as pretty as you might think, as it contains microplastics that contaminate our environment. Searching for wrapping paper that is made from unbleached paper or other natural sources is paramount if you want to go plastic-free.
Some natural wrapping papers are made from leaves, grass and hemp. These sustainable wrapping papers still have a beautiful Christmas aesthetic and a “doing good by your earth” feeling. Embrace it! Everyone will still be very excited tearing open their presents. Plus, natural fibers are biodegradable and compostable, which means that your wrapping paper can decompose back into the Earth where it came from. Now that’s a Christmas miracle!
Wrapping paper containing glitter is not recyclable because the glitter contains microplastics. Scientists estimate more than 8 trillion microbeads enter U.S. waters daily.
Reuse Shipping Boxes
Producing one ton of recycled cardboard can save around 700 gallons of water compared to making it from virgin materials. While recycling rates are high, a portion of paper boxes still end up in landfills, contributing to methane emissions as they decompose.
The average American will use the equivalent of seven trees each year in paper and cardboard products.
Most of us order products online all of the time, and a ton of those products are delivered to our doorsteps in sturdy cardboard boxes, so why not use them again? If you don’t have any saved, start saving them now. If you do, pull them out and give them new life, a new experience of housing a gift for one of your loved ones. How exciting for a cardboard box to think its life’s purpose has come to an end, only to be picked up and re-wrapped in beautiful recycled wrapping paper.
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Throwing out cardboard and paper makes up approximately 40% of all solid waste. It makes sense to reuse cardboard boxes since roughly “90% of all items shipped in the United States are packaged in some form of cardboard,” according to the Environmental Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. In 2018, over 17,200 thousand tons of cardboard were thrown into the landfill.
Swap Out Paper For Reusable Fabric Gift Wrap
Sari Fabric Furoshiki Gift Wrap is made from a Recycled Silk Sari Fabric set of 10. $29 (Sale $7.25)
If you would like to be a sustainable gift wrapping expert and take it to the next level, try investing in reusable fabric gift wrap! Using a sewing machine to repurpose your old clothing by turning them into fabric gift wrap is an incredible way to make our earth smile and have long-lasting gift wrap for years to come. There are plenty of videos online that show you how. If you aren’t much of the sewing type, you can use the Furoshiki Method to wrap your gifts with old fabric from your house or sustainable fabric. No clothes to repurpose or fabric laying around? You can also purchase sustainable fabric gift wrap online! Yes, it’s that easy to reduce your paper waste and keep those icebergs from melting around Santa’s house.
The amount of wrapping paper thrown away at Christmas in the UK alone would stretch to the moon.
Use Biodegradable Tape
Eco-Friendly Kraft Paper Tape is made of recyclable eco-friendly materials, the tape will not pollute the environment, No-chemical,100% kraft paper material is biodegradable convenient to recycle. $9
Did you know that your everyday plastic tape is not recyclable? Better late than never to find out! There are biodegradable and recyclable adhesive tapes out there, so make your next purchase tape one that creates positive change for our environment. Much of our typical plastic tape is made from “petroleum-based plastic” that “simply breaks down into smaller pieces. Microorganisms are unable to digest the polyethylene, polyester, or polypropylene films,” as mentioned in Echotape’s research article “Industry Insights: Making Sustainable Choices in the Adhesive Tape Market.”
Swap Plastic Bows For Biodegradable Twine
Hemp Craft Cord- Natural Colors Variety Pack (6 Mini Spools) is made from 100% hemp. $12
Instead of purchasing copious amounts of ribbon and bows to adorn your sustainably wrapped cardboard box, opt for twine made from natural resources. You can find twine made from 100% unbleached cotton or hemp, being completely biodegradable and compostable unlike your typical holiday ribbon! If you’re feeling super festive, you could purchase some Christmas themed twine to spice up that aesthetic. By the time you’re finished tying off your gifts with some festive sustainable twine, Santa will be asking you for gift wrapping advice.
An estimated 38,000 miles of ribbon are thrown away after the holidays. That’s enough ribbon to tie a bow all the way around the Earth!
Shop Thrift Stores for Gift Boxes And Jars
Carved Glass Containers are made from recycled glass storage jars and come with wooden lids handmade from wine bottles. $15
Stopping by your local thrift store is a fabulous way to find old gift boxes and glass jars that can serve as great ways to present gifts under the tree! Being inventive and getting crafty is fun, and what’s more fun than opening your gift in a unique container! Seeking out thrifted gift boxes, jars, and containers is sustainable because they can be reused. Embellishing your thrifted finds to make them more jolly could include using your sustainable tape to attach leaves and flowers, giving an earthy-vibe to express its sustainability. It is time to dramatically change our gift wrapping habits, creating more meaning for each other and our one and only Earth.