WHO KNEW There Were so Many Fun and Environmentally Friendly Gift-Wrapping Options?

Most gift-wrapping paper is not recyclable, which means the bulk of it ends up in landfill. Even if you’re frugal and carefully preserve your used gift-wrapping for the next gift, ultimately, it ends up in landfill. Not only is most gift-wrap not recyclable, but it’s often made from non-recycled paper. It’s not the most environmentally-friendly creation.

The reason why gift-wrapping can’t be recycled is that it is often coated with a thin layer of plastic—as if we needed more plastic in our lives. In addition, if it has glitter, or foil, or flocking, or metallic decorations, or adhesives, then it is destined for the trash bin. Tissue paper might seem like a reasonable alternative, but it is too thin to be recycled.

What is an environmentally-conscious person to do? Happily, there are some great alternatives.

1) Use brown craft paper. You can buy this by the roll (make sure it’s made from recycled paper), or you can just cut up some old brown paper bags. Using markers, you can decorate the package as you see fit. Or let your kids go to town decorating a roll of brown paper with markers, crayons or stamps, and use it as your go-to wrapping paper.

2) Repurpose shipping boxes, or old baskets, as gift containers. You can decorate the box, or wrap it in brown paper, or even newspaper. You can use paper-based ribbon to dress-up the box or basket and use reclaimed fabric to hide the contents in the basket.

3) Use cloth. Furoshiki is the Japanese art of gift wrapping with fabric. You can find lots of vendors on Etsy for the holidays, or for any occasion. With furoshiki, the wrapping is as much a gift as what’s wrapped inside. You can make your own with clothes that can no longer be worn, or even old linens (check out the LISTEN center for inexpensive garments to repurpose this way). Plenty of online tutorials offer instruction on how to wrap using the furoshiki method. In addition to furoshiki, you can also make cloth gift bags out of scraps of fabric or disused clothing. You can either make a simple satchel, with the ends bunched together and tied with ribbon, or you can stitch a large hem around the edges through which you can feed a string to tie it taught. Whatever method you choose, used fabric is a great gift-wrap option as it also keeps that fabric out of landfills.

4) Let a new, attractive dish towel do double duty as a gift and as gift wrap.

If you’re intent on using traditional wrapping paper, do a search to find paper that provides information indicating it’s eco-friendly. Look for words like: “recyclable," "biodegradable," "FSC certified," and "made from 100% recycled materials”.

That’s a wrap!