Sustainable Way to Wrap Gifts this Year
When you think of the holidays, you think of sparkling presents under the tree, wrapped in red, green, and gold wrapping paper, adorned with beautiful touches like ribbons or bows. However, this holiday staple has another side to it: garbage bags full of torn paper and discarded decorations. Wrapping paper is made for single use, and more often than not ends up in our landfills days after you tear open your gifts. Gift wrapping has created a 13 billion dollar industry in America alone. The USA consumes the most paper and cardboard globally, averaging at 468 pounds per person yearly- the weight of one grand piano for every person in the country! The holidays mark a huge ramp up in paper production and consumption; during the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas the US produces upwards of 25 million tons of excess paper waste; a 25% increase of trash compared to the rest of the year.
Recycling helps, right?
This influx of paper products takes a large toll on the environment each year as well, nearly
50,000 trees are cut to fulfill the demand each holiday season. A large amount of the wrapping
materials we use go straight to landfills. Nearly half of all wrapping paper isn’t recyclable at all.
Although paper is typically seen as being recyclable, The fibers found in cheaper wrapping paper are often too weak to recycle which makes it hard to reuse more than a couple of times. Then things like glitter, lamination, and dyes are added the chemical compounds then become unusable for recycling purposes. After our shiny decorative wrapping paper gets rejected for recycling it ends up on the ground in a
landfill where in 2-6 weeks it will decompose, leeching all the glitter, dyes, and chemicals into
the ground soil. Using a sustainable wrapping method could make a big impact on our landfills this holiday season.
How can we fix this?
We’re not just going to stop giving gifts, and we aren't just going to leave unwrapped presents
laying around. Americans on average give 42 gifts per year; if everyone wrapped just 3 of those
gifts with sustainable and reusable materials we could save enough paper to cover 45,000
football fields.
There’s many ways to wrap gifts sustainably, amongst the easiest would be to make the
wrapping a part of the gift i.e. putting your present in a nice reusable tote, reusable produce
bags, etc. Practicing the art of Furoshiki can also add a fun and personal flair to many gifts.
Furoshiki (風呂敷) are a type of traditional Japanese wrapping cloth traditionally used to
transport clothes, gifts, or other goods. The practice of artfully wrapping items originates from
8th century Japan. The only material needed for Furoshiki is a square cloth. Many specifically
made for gift wrapping can be found online, but a silk scarf or handkerchief could be a great
addition to a gift as well. The use of fabric not only provides a stylish and personal touch to your gifts, it can be reused as gift wrapping, tied into a bag, used as a placemat, or be a decorative piece in the home. There are millions of uses for this versatile fabric, and you can get as creative with it as you’d like!
Where do we get material for wrapping?
Here! We’re selling 3 elegant furoshiki cloths for $13 for, $5.00 individual ($)
Free people furoshiki cloth , $5 each ($)
Tea Collection Furoshiki $5 each ($)
Anthropologie has individual furoshiki clothes for $15 ($$)
Affordable silk scarves on Amazon, $11 each ($$)
Written by Maddie O’Rourke and Madeline Esper
