Zero Waste Christmas Wrapping

The festive season is primarily known for being a time of giving……gifts, love, time – spent with those we care about. But that isn’t all we are giving is it? We are also doling out plenty to our beautiful planet, in the form of tonnes and tonnes of waste. Each and every Christmas approximately 83 square kilometres of wrapping paper ends up in UK rubbish bins. It’s so incredibly difficult to even try to visualise this amount isn’t it? Let me put it in to perspective for you. The amount of wrapping paper used and discarded is enough to wrap around the equator 9 times. I’m generally crap at Geography but I realise that THIS is INSANE. So how do we fix it? It feels impossible with so many of us participating in this holiday, splurging on material items for our loved ones. So perhaps the answer is in the wrapping? Maybe you think the idea of zero waste Christmas wrapping sounds like a bit of a ball ache. Actually just making really small swaps can make a huge, huge difference and the materials are not as hard to get hold of as you may think.

Wrapping Paper

There are actually a few options when it comes to wrapping. 

• Recycled Paper – Brown parcel paper is generally recycled and therefore it’s recyclable. It’s cheap and also it has a real rustic look to it. If you fancy something patterned there are several companies now getting on board by offering recyclable festive paper options. Here are just a couple of examples for you. Paperchase currently have this very cute Christmas tree paper on offer at 3 for 2. I also absolutely love this recycled fawn paper from Blank Inside via Not On the High Street which has been printed with vegetable oils. 
• Tissue Paper – Made from recycled paper and in a huge variety of colours, tissue paper is a great eco friendly alternative. Just be careful not to buy the shiny or glittery types as this leave metallic flecks in the paper recycling process.
• Paper bags – Recyclable brown lunch bags are perfect to reuse for small gifts. Simple and beautiful when decorated.
• Material – Try typing furoshiki in to google or youtube. This is the Japanese art of wrapping gifts in materials. It’s beautiful, simple and fascinating to watch.
• Newspaper – Join the upcycling movement by re-using newspapers, magazines, or as someone suggested on my Instagram – comics!
• Gift Bags – Whenever I receive a gift bag I keep it and then reuse it. This is a really effective method of recycling as some of the materials on gift bags prevent them from actually going in to the paper recycling bins.

Other tips for zero waste Christmas wrapping

It doesn’t end with the material we use to wrap our gifts of course. What about all the fiddly bits we add? The first major eco-friendly tip is to replace your regular plastic sticky tape. The tape left on discarded wrapping paper often renders it un-recycleable, which is frustrating if you’ve gone to the effort of buying recycled or biodegradable paper. Luckily there are a few alternatives.

• Brown paper parcel tape – actually quite difficult to come by. I tried to purchase some of this tape in several of the leading stationary shops and they’d never even heard of it. In the end I found some in the Post Office but I’ve also managed to source some online for you at Anything But Plastic.
• Washi Tape – It’s so on trend right now to buy washi tape which is great because it means it’s available EVERYWHERE. This (basically) masking tape made from Japanese rice paper comes in a huge variety of colours, patterns and sizes. 
• Twine – Either for tying up the material wrapped gifts or for decoration on paper parcels – twine is a fabulous biodegradable addition to your wrapping. Again it’s available in a plethora of colours and it looks sooooo pretty.
• Luggage gift tags – Made from recyclable paper and again widely available in a range of colours and patterns. These reindeer tags from Not on The High Street are a beautiful and perfect example.
• Recycle last year’s Christmas cards – These make perfect gift tags and you’ll have a huge range to choose from (hopefully).

So I’m not saying that going Eco-friendly with your gift wrap this Christmas is always the easiest option. But then when is anything worthwhile easy in this life? I, for one have actually found it quite fun sourcing the materials out that I like and it’s also made me waaaaaay more creative (granted it now takes me about fifteen mins to wrap each gift so some of you may be receiving yours in January). Also I feel really proud that my gifts look noticeably different, what a great way to get the conversation about zero waste christmas wrapping started. So please, do make love and giving the primary focus this festive season, but consider our beautiful earth, our oceans, our landfills and opt to make even just one change. If we ALL did that this Christmas we could truly make a significant difference.

Love Always

Beth Anne xoxo