Fun fact: wrapping paper alone equates to 4 million pounds of waste, which is normally NOT sorted into recycling and heads straight to the landfills. Another fun fact: if you use shiny metallic or glitter wrapping paper, these CANNOT even be recycled. Oh! And neither can ribbons or bows or the wrapping paper riddled with tape.
I mean, can you even wrap – see what I did there – your head around that?! I certainly couldn’t when I read those articles. It was honestly shocking to me! When you think on it further, why would I even be shocked by this information? So then you just end up feeling terrible that you go into the holidays, head to just grab some wrapping paper you think is fun and start going to town without another thought about WHERE this trash even ends up.
Why Should I Care?
I’m as guilty as the next person when something like this is brought to my attention; wondering why I should care and being just ONE household out of millions, so how can I really contribute and make a difference? Well I’m hoping, by just spreading the word the best I can, I CAN make a difference in the long run.
Our landfills are big enough without adding an average of 4 million pounds of wrapping paper trash to it once a year around the holidays. I mean have you ever seen WALL-E?! If you haven’t, I definitely recommend. As harsh as it is, it’s where we’re heading if we don’t start being more observant!
So How Can We Help?
We try VERY hard in our household to be conscientious of our carbon footprint, so of course I took a huge step in remedying this error in recycling on our part this year! One thing that we did in lieu of the regular wrapping paper route, was to grab a roll of Kraft Paper – you know the brown paper you often receive packages in from the post office? See image below:
You might think this is a boring alternate to Santa’s and glittering snowflake wrapping paper, but they are super fun to still dress up with re-usable and recyclable bows! I opted to use Jute to create a nice aesthetic on the presents and give a more earthy feel to our gifts! I was pleasantly surprised with the turnout!
If you have kids, make it a fun arts & crafts session and let them draw or color their presents, add fun countdowns or wording to it, the entire set up could become a new and fun family tradition!
Reuse. Regift. Recycle.
Another way to help is by reusing bags! I do this every year and use gift bags that I have received from others as well as using store gift bags. If you are a boutique clothing shopper like I am, a lot of the time your clothes are all neatly stacked into a gift bag, tissue paper and all! The only thing you need to do from there is put your present in and add a tag – although I rarely do so.
Also, so many of us partake in Cyber Monday, that it’s almost better to dress up the Amazon boxes that our packages come in! They aren’t the most sightly things, BUT even if you just get rid of the wrapping step that’s a huge step in preservation! I personally still wrapped the Amazon orders in the kraft paper, but honestly considered dressing them up with some reusable ribbon and calling it a day!
Something I also stumbled upon this year were fabric gift bags, and they are the cutest things I have ever seen! The best part is that this option means no wrapping or tape fiascos whatsoever! I will be giving these a try next year, since they are definitely one of the more expensive options, I’ll need to stock up!
If you have to do a lot of family events and are gifting more than 5 – 10 presents per person, I would go the route of recyclable Kraft Gift Bags and the Kraft Wrapping Paper!
To Wrap It Up.
There are a bunch of different ways that we can lessen the landfill poundage issue around the holidays. Even though you are ONE person, one person can make a huge difference in the long run, especially when you pass on the word to others. So here’s me passing it onto you this holiday season!
