Eco-Friendly Gift Wrapping Tips

I’ve been thinking lately about how much paper goes to waste during the Holiday season. I know at our past Christmases we’ve had garbage bags full of wrapping paper. According to the Clean Air Council, In the U.S., an additional 5 million tons of waste is generated during the holidays. Four million tons of this is wrapping paper and shopping bags. Eco-Chick.com states, if every American wrapped just three presents in reused materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields. Here are some eco-friendly gift wrapping tips:

1. Buy recycled gift wrap. You can google search “recycled gift wrap” and it will come up with a ton of hits for you. I found one boutique, Fish Lips Paper Design, which is incredibly cute. The gift wrap is printed on 100% recycled paper with soy-based inks. Each over sized sheet is 22″ x 33.75″ of nice and thick paper with a smooth satin finish (and only $4.00). Buying recycled gift wrap will save you so much money – never again will you have to think about taking out payday loans to buy wrapping paper!

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2. Wrap your gift in a gift! Put your gift in a reusable bag, photo box, or a silk scarf wrap! These beautiful silk wraps are from the Biota collection, a group of Canadian designers. Gifting wine this year? Wrap the  wine bottle in a nice dish cloth and secure with a small piece of ribbon. This looks much more elegant than gift wrap!

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3. Gift cookies in recycled containers! If you give home-baked cookies to your friends and neighbors, start saving up containers and jars of all shapes and sizes. You can create your own gift box and decorate it with scraps of wrapping paper. This is also a good idea if you have a small gift that needs a box. Stampthat.com created this candy cane gift container.

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4. Make your gift wrap! Use those useless paper bags to create personalized gift wrap. Cut them apart to make a flat surface. Use stamps to create holiday decorations or cut out the letters of the recipients name.

5.  Shred your scraps and used wrapping paper to be used for padding to ship packages.

6. Craft projects. Use your wrapping paper in any craft project imaginable: origami, collages, scrapbooking and  paper mache.

We would love to hear if you have any other ideas for eco-friendly gift wrapping or ways to use old wrapping paper. Are you going to eco-friendly gift wrap this year? Let us know!