Eco Friendly Gift Wrapping Ideas

From shipping boxes, to wrapping papers, to bags and bows the United States produces a lot of waste during the holiday season. While a beautifully wrapped gift brings joy during the holiday season, it quickly turns to added landfill waste after the New Year. You can reduce your environmental impact this Christmas by following a few eco-friendly gift wrapping ideas.

Five Eco Friendly Gift Wrapping Ideas

Repurposed Wrapping Paper

Instead of purchasing a store bought roll of wrapping paper this year, make your own from used paper you already have in your house. Smaller gifts can be wrapped in pages from a magazine. Larger gifts can be wrapped in the comics section of the newspaper. You can also dress up brown paper grocery bags with markers, paint or ribbons and bows to create repurposed gift bags.

Recycled Wrapping Paper

A few eco conscious stores carry lines of wrapping paper made from post-consumer recycled paper products and soy based inks. The recycled paper eliminates landfill waste and the soy based inks are sustainable, unlike traditional ink products. Fish Lips Paper Design carries a line of wrapping paper made entirely from recycled and sustainable products.

Sustainable Gift Wrap

Sustainable wrapping paper is another relatively new gift wrapping idea. These wrapping papers come from sustainable plants which regenerate quickly with minimal damage to the environment, unlike the trees used to harvest traditional paper. Of the Earth carries a line of wrapping paper made from Lotka, a plant found in Nepal. Best of all, the company gets the paper from local craftsman in the area, helping to promote fair trade practices.

Christmas Cards with an Eco Conscious Mission

Sending Christmas cards is a longstanding holiday tradition that unfortunately creates a lot of resource waste and adds to landfills. Many people have opted to eliminate adding Christmas cards to their gifts altogether, but if you want to keep the tradition alive you can do so in eco friendly style with plantable holiday cards from Botanical PaperWorks. Each handmade card comes on recycled paper embedded with plant seeds. After the New Year, the recipient can plant the card to grow a spruce tree in their yard.

Reusable Gift Bags

Gifts bags eliminate the need for a separate box and are a must have for odd shaped presents. Lucky Crow makes a line of reusable gift bag. The gift bags vary in sizes, designs and colors but each one is made entirely from fabric, meaning you can use them again and again. The company also offers an organic fabric option. Best of all, the bags include a reusable ribbon, so you can tie the bag closed- eliminated the need for tissue paper.