Living Green

Yeah, I said it's NOT recyclable:

It's true that you CAN buy wrapping paper made from recycled products, but most paper mills do not recycle the used wrapping.

RecycleNow.com has the reasons why:

• wrapping paper is often dyed, laminated and/or contains non-paper additives such as gold and silver coloured shapes, glitter, plastics etc which cannot be recycled;


• some wrapping paper is very thin and contains few good quality fibres for recycling; and


• a lot of wrapping paper has sticky tape attached to it which makes it very difficult to recycle.

It's important to note that some, though a minority of recycling centers will accept used wrapping. Be sure to check and see if yours does.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's explore some kick ass ways to not even find ourselves in that do they/don't they situation.

5 Creative Ways to Wrap a Present Without Wrapping Paper:

1) Reuse Old Catalogs

Ok, this one is definitely my favorite...creativity wise at least. Abmatic at Curbly.com has got your step-by-step instructions (with photos) of how to accomplish this feat. She says,

"I find that jcrew catalogs work well and have a large variety of colors represented. They also have entire pages devoted to the ever mesmerizing stacks of shirts (or sweaters, pants etc) in a rainbow of colors"

Here's an example of what she teaches you to do with one of those nice full page ads:

2) Use Scraps in Creative Ways

In that same vein, Wrap Art at Boakart.com has GREAT ideas on how to reuse any piece of scrap paper, tissue, fabric, ribbon, and any other material you can think of as a fantastic wrapping alternative!

Via an article in UK Newspaper, Guardian Unlimited.

3) Reuse Inexpensive, yet Festive, Fabric

An article on Suite101's Green Living site says,

"This year, why not try wrapping smaller gifts with fabric. There are thousands of Christmas fabrics available that can be cut with pinking shears (so they don't ravel) and used to wrap smaller gifts.

These decorative wraps can be used year after year. The average bolt of cotton fabric is 42" to 45" wide, and many seasonal fabrics are very reasonably priced"

4) Personalized Phone Book Wrapping

HGTV Smart Solutions had a clever idea: "Wrap a gift in phone-book paper and highlight the recipient's name on the front"

Ha! Very clever indeed.

5) Have a Happy Holiday Present Hunt

Another idea from the Guardian Unlimited is to dispense with the packaging all together. Hide the presents around the house and have a Christmas present hunt.

I'm envisioning a highly competitive game emerging from this idea as well.

What are some creative and sustainable ideas you have for non-wrapping presents?