Christmas · Essentials · Household · Seasonal

Eco Friendly Christmas Wrapping

tishscripps
Hi Team Vegan, not technically a vegan post but with Christmas coming up its an important issue to discuss and I know its something you are all concerned about so here’s a few tips and ideas to reduce your waste this Christmas by making changes to your gift wrapping. In just the UK we throw away an increase 30% more rubbish over the Christmas period, and  227,000 miles of Christmas Paper will be thrown away, thats enough paper to wrap the planet over 8 times! A large about of wrapping paper isn’t recyclable, so here’s a few ways you can make swaps to reduce your waste with eco friendly gift wrapping ideas.

Eco Friendly Wrapping Tips

Buy Recyclable Paper
The first step you can take is ensuring your paper can be recycled and the one sure way to do that is by buying  eco brown recycled paper, you can find some here. Normally thicker than the non recyclable wrapping paper you can find in Tesco etc it’s not only better for the environment but has a lower chance in ripping whilst your wrapping you presents. If you don’t like the plain brown look then you can always customise your paper with stamps or biodegradable twine or colour raffia ribbon, you can find some here

Reuse wrapping paper

If the brown recycled look isn’t for you then perhaps collect paper from your gifts this year and smooth them out to reuse next year or even plain papers throughout the year you’ve received for birthdays etc, it doesn’t have to be Christmas paper you can make anything work and look festive.

Reuse Gift Bags

The same applies with gift bags, there is no need to buy new gift bags if you collect those throughout the year you can easily reuse them to reduce the waste and its much more cost effective doing this, but there is also the option of recyclable bags if you don’t have any to saved up which you can find here, these are biodegradable and much better for the environment

Make your own gift bags or boxes

If your more of the crafty type you could make your own boxes instead of buying biodegradable bags, this could be a really good solution for those small trinkets and awkward gift shapes and there’s plenty of templates on the internet for you to download and make it easier to make but remember to use a biodegradable or recyclable material.

Wrap with fabric

How about using a nice scarf to wrap your gifts this year, its a perfect way to double up your gift wrapping into another gift for your loved ones, there’s a quick video here to show you how easy it can be, its a lovely way to make beautifully wrapped presents.

Ribbons and bows

Don’t forget recycling the ribbons and bows, you’ll receive plenty of gifts throughout the year that you can save these from to reuse, another idea for bits of ribbons is those little ribbons from inside tops and dresses, most people cut these out but instead of just binning them add them to your saved collection to use later on in the year with your gift wrapping.

Tags

A great way to recycle gift tags is to cut out designs from Christmas cards, you receive loads every year and after the season ends they go straight in the bin adding to our waste problem, you can reduce some of that waste by not buying gift tags and recycling Christmas cards.

Another idea is biodegradable gift tags which you can find here, they will go lovely and match your eco friendly wrapping if using the brown eco friendly paper options, can easily be jazzed up to look more festive with stamps etc. There are also plenty of different shapes available, why not opt for a Christmas tree shape instead.

Soy Wax Wraps

A more pricey option but completely reusable and come in beautiful designs, soy wax wraps require no tapes etc you just hold them onto themselves and press down, another great use for these is wrapping food instead of using clingfilm, there’s plenty of brands on the market a quick google search will take you to finding lots of different designs and companies.

Don’t forget the tape

Everyone always forgets the tape when it comes to wrapping but sellotape is plastic which can’t be recycled and it makes your eco friendly papers etc un-recyclable too, you can find eco tape here which will match your biodegradable brown wrapping, or alternatively you can get different coloured tapes, there is plenty of options on the market to avoid using none recyclable tapes.

So make better choices this year by thinking about our planet, i’d love to see some of your own ideas and designs that I can share with the rest of the team so please feel free to send them in – hello@veganswapsie.com