Wrapping without Waste
By Jennifer Suri
There’s nothing like a beautifully wrapped gift to amplify the joy of giving. Americans love to wrap gifts. Years ago my sister brought gifts to a friend’s family in Argentina and they were as enchanted by the wrapping as by the gifts themselves. If you get creative you can evoke this same delight with your wrapped gifts while still being environmentally friendly. But first, what do you do with the wrapping paper you have?
Keep Wrapping Paper out of Landfills
Wrapping paper is the part of the gift that usually just gets thrown away. According to Earth911
“…approximately 4.6 million lbs. of wrapping paper is produced in the U.S. each year, and…about 2.3 million pounds ends its life in landfills.”
If you do it right, you can keep the paper on the gifts that you get from ending up in landfills. Cornell Cooperative Extension has a handy guide to whether you can reuse, recycle or compost wrapping paper.
Paper with glitter or plastic coating or foil paper cannot be recycled. So if you decide to buy, look for paper that is from recycled materials or certified as sustainable like this wrapping paper from Central 23.
Softly, your personal sustainable shopping assistant, can help you find sustainable SWAPS! like these and more this holiday season while you are shopping online.
Scrunch to recycle, Tear to compost
Reusing or recycling is the first step. Only recycle paper that you know will be recycled, otherwise it will end up in the landfill. How do you know if your paper can be recycled? Earth911 led us to this tidbit from a BBC report “Try to scrunch up the paper into a ball. If it scrunches, and stays scrunched, it can probably be recycled.” Remember to take off all ribbon, bows, tags and tape before recycling.
Do you have a compost pile? You can compost some paper. Horticulturist Lemoine Waite of Shasta College has some great tips on composting. Specifically, for composting wrapping paper, she shared this fact from Cornell Cooperative Extension:
“Generally, if it tears easily, it’s okay to compost it. In fact, in order to compost it, it is best to shred it as small as possible.”
More Ideas for Gift Wrapping
You can reduce waste from the gifts you give by thinking a bit outside the box.
- Reuse other paper you have around the house for wrapping gifts. Get creative with sheet music, newspapers or old books.
- Decorate brown paper bags or kraft paper. This paper is reusable, recyclable and compostable. It gives a rustic look to your gift and when decorated can become personalized and festive.
- Make a fabric gift bag. Not only will it be reused with delight, but if made of cotton is also sustainable. You can get directions for your own fabric gift bags from sumoftheirstories.com. If you don’t sew you can follow the Japanese art form of furoshiki — wrapping gifts in fabric. You can make the wrapping a part of the gift by using a scarf or a tea towel.
- Fill containers like baskets, bowls, mugs or glass jars with your gift. Just make sure your recipient knows they’re part of the gift so they don’t return the vessel!
With these small changes in gift wrapping habits we can reduce landfill waste along with delighting our friends and family over the holidays.
Happy Wrapping!
