Did you know?
- If every American family wrapped just three presents in recyclable materials, we would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.
- Reuse that ribbon! If every household reused just two feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet!
(facts via)
Alternative Holiday Gift Wrapping Ideas that are good for the environment and your budget! I was searching for some creative recycled gift wrapping ideas, and thought I’d share the links with you.
- Plastic Bag Bows from ReadyMade (image via ReadyMade)
- Cereal Box Gift Box How-To
- ThriftyFun Gift Wrap Ideas
- GetCrafty: Creative Gift Wrapping Ideas
- Simply Green Blog by Danny Seo (this week features ideas from his book of recycled gift wrapping)
Some Extra Ideas:
- Calendar (I am so excited for this one, I still have my Audrey Hepburn calendar from 04, so will be using that this season!)
- Vintage Gift Wrap (I LOVE this – I have been scouring thrift stores for vintage gift wrap, and have found some amazing designs)
- Brown Packing Paper – I used some brown paper (like a brown paper grocery bag) that came in a package at work, it was all balled up in the bottom of the box, but I thought the wrinkles added to the look
- Recycled Ribbon – I am not purchasing ANY new ribbon this year – it will all be from thrift shops (always cuter anyways) or recycled from the years before
- Sewing Patterns (I just read this idea today, and will definetley be picking one up at my next thrift outing, they’re usually less that 25 cents each)
- Gift Baskets – also an overabundance of baskets at thrift stores, I have picked up several of these too
- Christmas Tins – I have been collecting them from thrift stores since mid-November to deliver cookies in
- Maps (I know I have several old Illinois maps in my car)
- Newsprint – being an art major (and ready to burn my drawing pads after this semester) I have lots of extra paper after this semester, and it comes in large sheets, so I will be recycling these too
Please post anymore ideas you have or anything you are trying this Christmas!
Monkee said,
December 12, 2006 @ 9:50 am
While I don’t have a way to recycle previously used gift wrap, I have been able to cut down on my wasted gift wrap a couple of ways. First of all, I actually measure the boxes and paper to keep from having excess trimmings. Second, when I do have extra strips of wrapping paper I keep them for smaller gifts or (my absolute favorite idea) use them as bands with coordinated paper for multilayered effects.
carrie said,
November 6, 2007 @ 10:00 am
Megan,
Fabulous ideas and links–thanks for pointing me in this direction.
Glad you’re back. Your posts motivate me to keep striving in this area!
Funny you mentioned Real Simple–that’s the one I was getting that I’m now sharing with my mom.
Ali said,
December 3, 2007 @ 4:19 pm
when I goggled about alternative gift wrapping a link to this post came up and that’s how I found you
I love yur blog!!
Irreconcilable differences: gift wrap garbage generation vs green Christmas… « It's Not Easy Being Green said,
December 2, 2009 @ 9:12 am
[...] other ideas can be found here, and here, and here. Good and Planty, a fun blog, has posts on the topic here and here. This Threadbanger link [...]