Four Sustainable Gift Wrapping Ideas for the holidays
Out of all the things we love to talk about at May’s Place, sustainability and living green is a big one. After all, “Be Green Buy Vintage” are the words we live by. The holidays are the perfect time to do what we can to be more green. Americans throw away 25% more trash from Thanksgiving to New Years more than any other time of year. That’s an additional 7 million pounds of waste. Just think about all that trash we throw away after our loved ones open gifts - Tissue paper, wrapping paper, tape, ribbons, bows, etc. Yuck. Luckily, there are alternatives!
We’ve listed only five ways to sustainably wrap your gift this year, but really your only limitation is your creativity! If every family in the U.S. wrapped just three of their gifts with reusable wrapping paper and/or other alternatives like scarves and tote bags, it would save enough paper (AKA trees) to cover 45,000 football fields. We’re convinced. How about you?
Let’s get to wrapping, ya’ll! (Cues holiday music)
How to Sustainably Wrap Your Gift?
Silk Scarf
One of the most beautiful wrappings of all is a vintage silk scarf tied into a nice little bow. There are many ways to wear our vintage scarves, and it turns out they have a lot of other uses too, like wrapping up perfect little packages for the holidays. It’s like two gifts in one!
Just lay the scarf flat on the ground, put your item in the middle, and tie the corners at the top. You can even stack some items, like we did with our signature soy candles.
Tip: Make it personalized by pinning a recyclable to/from tag to the scarf.
Paper Grocery Bag
In these days of extra precautions where bringing your own bag to the grocery store is against the rules, you may have a lot of paper grocery bags sitting around your house. These things are perfect for wrapping paper!
You can unfold them from the bottom, cut off extra scraps on the side (these extra scraps could be used for other crafting or even compost) and you’ll get a piece of square paper you can cut in any size to wrap with. Make it your own by tying some twine, a pine sprig, and a personalized tag. All of this can be recycled after opening, unlike regular wrapping paper.
Tip: Be sure to go tape free for a full zero waste experience.
Newspaper
We know, we know. Who reads the physical newspaper anymore? Well, not a lot of people, so that leaves a good amount of stacks laying around, as there are still 28.6 million copies of newspapers printed on the daily. We can also use these as sustainable wrapping paper!
Just take one of your stacks, and cut any size piece from the paper. This particular style of paper is best for larger gifts, as you have larger sizes to work with. Just like with the paper grocery bags, you can make this festive by adding twine, a natural wintery touch, and a tag.
Tip: Use leftover fabric from an old t-shirt or a sewing project and use it as a bow.
Organic Cotton Tote Bag
Tote bags, or any reusable bag for that matter, is a perfect gift carrying item. This is another two-gift surprise, as you can give what’s inside the bag, and the bag itself. We have these amazing organic cotton “Be Green Buy Vintage” tote bags that are perfect for this.
To make the present more “present looking” add some decorations to the handles of the bag and some tissue paper inside like you would any other gift bag.
Tip: Use recyclable tissue paper to keep it all waste-free.
