7 Sustainable Ways To Wrap Holiday Gifts

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Perfectly wrapped presents under the tree, with decorative paper showing patterns of snowflakes and gingerbread men, nicely finished off with a big bow. This is the iconic imagery of the holidays. But what we don’t see is the approximately 4.6 million pounds of this very same paper that winds up in landfills every year, according to Earth911.

The holidays are a nice time to get together with loved ones, but during them, we’re not very nice to the planet. Between chopping down tens of thousands of trees to put in our living rooms to increasing carbon footprint tenfold by ordering gifts that have to be flown and driven across the country to wrapping presents, we consume and create a lot of waste this time of year. In fact, Brightly reports that our average daily trash production per person jumps from five to 6.25 pounds this time of year.

Living a more sustainable life starts with small steps. And one thing you can do this year is find creative ways to wrap your gifts that don’t involve wrapping paper destined for a landfill. Here are sustainable ways to wrap holiday presents.

Wrap It In Another Gift

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One of the most eco-friendly ways to wrap a gift is to simply wrap it in another gift. You can wrap a present up in a scarf, a t-shirt, a decorative towel, a blanket or a similar item, and then tie the whole thing up with a bow. There will be no wasted materials when you wrap one gift inside of another.

Hold Onto Dust Bags + Shoe Boxes

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When you go shopping at department stores and boutiques, they likely give you shoes and hats in nice boxes and dust bags. Hold onto these throughout the year. Some of these bags make the perfect item to put several small gifts in. Just tie up the open end with a decorative ribbon. Old shoe and hat boxes can be used for larger items, and can save you from buying new boxes.

Reusable Cloth Wrapping

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Consider buying reusable cloth wrapping. There are several companies that make beautiful options today. The trick is asking the gift recipient to promise that they will reuse the wrapping, so it doesn’t wind up in the trash. Or, if you’re hosting the big holiday party, you can simply volunteer to collect all of the wrapping after gift opening is over and hold onto the cloth wrapping.

Buy Recycled Paper

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Today, there are dozens of brands committed to making eco-friendly wrapping paper. Some use old newspaper that they’ve added beautiful artwork to while others compress paper scraps into new sheets of paper. Amazon has a section dedicated to recycled, biodegradable and recyclable wrapping paper. Or, you can research and support a small business selling recycled wrapping paper.

Keep Bags + Packaging

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Hold onto paper bags you get from the grocery store and similar vendors. You can decorate these with glitter and paint and turn them into wrapping paper. If you have kids, they can decorate these and add their own personal touch. Additionally, hang onto packaging you get for delivered items like Amazon packages. Do not cut up or recycle the boxes yet. You can also paint and decorate these, and put gifts inside them.

Make Ribbons From Rags

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The ribbons you buy at the store also wind up in a landfill. Instead of using those, make your own from cloth and rags you were going to throw out. You can take old t-shirts or towels and cut these into strips that can be used as ribbons.

Find Decoration In Nature

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Use items from nature to decorate boxes. You can use dried flowers from your garden, pine cones, colorful fall leaves, acorns, twigs and even small pebbles. This eliminated the need for sticky glitter or paint that often contains harmful chemicals.