Eco-friendly Gift Wrap

Reusing, recycling and getting creative with gift wrap.

November/December 2002
By Summer McElley  
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Each year between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, Americans produce an extra five million tons of trash, including 38,000 miles of ribbon—enough to tie a bow around the earth. But with a little creativity and planning, much of this waste can be prevented. Start by saving old wrapping paper, bows, and ribbon to reuse next year. Don’t throw out wrapping paper just because it’s torn; you can strategically place bows and ribbon over the ripped areas.

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If you must use new gift wrap, buy recycled paper. Also consider using bags, cloth gift wrap, gift boxes, and baskets. Each person can add his or her own decoration to these pass-along items, giving the exchange a personal dimension and history. Gift bags, boxes, and cloths can last through at least five gifts, while baskets can last forever or be kept and used for something else.

For a little creativity in the gift wrap department, try some of the following ideas:

  • INNOVATIVE GIFT WRAPPING. Often the best gift wrap is old stuff that’s already lying around your house, including magazines, newspapers, maps, and posters. Scraps of material also make good wrapping paper. Old paper bags, shopping bags (everyone has plenty of these!), and recyclable cardboard boxes work, too.
  • GIVE GIFTS WITHIN A GIFT. No decorating required: Just buy a scarf or shirt— preferably something that the recipient could wear or use—and wrap the present in it.
  • GIVE GIFTS UNWRAPPED.
  • POST-HOLIDAY USES. When the holidays are over, line shelves and drawers with leftover wrapping paper, donate it to schools for art projects, or shred it and use it in place of Styrofoam peanuts when mailing packages.
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