How to Wrap a Gift The Eco-Friendly Way
The holidays come and go quickly. Heaps of brightly colored wrapping paper, glittery bows, and bags are piled near trash cans and stuffed into bags. We lug some of the ruins to the recycling bins and dispose of the rest all the while feeling a bit guilty for having splurged on the 2010 limited edition Santa wrapping paper now in shreds. Does this scene ring a bell?
In recent years, more attention is being paid to the amount of waste that accumulates around the gift-giving season and for good reason: According to Eco-Chick.com, if every American family wrapped just three presents in reused materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields. There’s definitely a way that you can avoid the trash bag full of paper fiasco and still go green this gift-giving season.
Still conflicted by the prospect of presenting your loved ones with a gift wrapped entirely in recycled items? We understand, but there is a way to maintain the holiday aesthetic and still save our planet a few trees and your wallet a few bucks. Before recommending this, I wanted to make sure it was actually feasible to do, so below is my gift completely wrapped in newspaper.
How to:
- Dig into your recycling bin and find the Sunday newspaper (sure to be full of colorful ads and comics).
- Select colorful ad, comic, or other disposed paper and wrap as usual.
- Top it off with a bow. Cut newspaper into about 8-10 strips about 6-12 inchs in length (depending on size of the bow, mine is 6 inches) and about 2 cm wide.
- Lay the strips on the gift you are wrapping with the side you want to show facing down in a sun or asterisk shape (*).
- Place pieces of tape on the center of the asterisk to secure the bow to the gift.
- Loops the strips into the center and secure them down with tape.
- When all are secured, take an additional strip and place it in the center of the bow to cover up the tape.
- Spread Holiday cheer!
Do you have any tips for going green this Holiday seasons? Comment and share!
