Don’t throw that away: repurpose into eco friendly gift wrapping.
Gift giving is such a delightful experience and all the more satisfying when you’ve found the perfect gift and wrapped it beautifully. Whether it is someone’s birthday or Christmas, gift giving is a lovely way to show someone that you appreciate them.
However seeing wrapping paper used as a pretty display for just 5 minutes before being torn open irks me. It is so wasteful! It is especially noticeable at Christmas or after a child’s birthday party when mountains of gifts have been given and received and there is a huge pile of wrapping paper to dispose of.
It’s not even just the wrapping paper that goes to waste. Every roll of wrapping paper includes a cardboard tube and plastic film too. International aid agency CARE Australia found that Australians use about 150 000 metres of wrapping paper, just at Christmas time!
There are plenty of items that pass through a household that are perfect for gift wrapping and look just as good as store bought wrapping paper. They can look good on their own or you can add extra embellishments for bonus presentation points.
Everytime you repurpose something to give it another use, you are saving it from landfill or resource intensive recycling.
Repurposing items you already have into eco friendly wrapping paper is also extremely economical – it’s free! Have you ever had a budget in mind for a gift, spent your entire budget and then realised you had to spend another $10 on gift wrapping and a card?
Sustainable Gift Wrap Ideas
1. Brown paper
I’m not talking about buying brown paper because it’s in vogue; that’s just as wasteful as standard wrapping paper. It has the slight advantage of being recyclable and made from recycled paper but it doesn’t change that you’re buying something to be used just one time.
Online orders using eco-conscious packaging are adding scrunched brown paper to boxes to stop the contents moving around and getting damaged. Smooth out the brown paper and you’ve got eco friendly wrapping paper ready to go.
Brown paper is a nice blank canvas that gives a chic appearance when dressed up with ribbon, twine, washi tape or foliage.
2. Plastic Free Toilet Paper Wrappers
I know this sounds odd but with the rise of plastic free toilet paper from companies like Who Gives a Crap and About a Dog, they come wrapped in funky printed paper. They are perfect for wrapping smaller size presents.
3. Newspaper
Once an abundant item in households, newspapers may rarely enter your household in the digital age. However even with a No Junk Mail sign, we get plenty of community newspapers appearing in our letterbox. Alternatively if your workplace purchases newspapers for staff to read, you could bring them home at the end of the day when needed.
I find that oddly enough, the pages that are mostly text look better than pages with images on them.
4. Kids artwork
Our standard painting canvas is A2 sheets of butchers paper. I’ve found that around 3 years old, both my kids like to paint the entire page. This makes for awesome colourful wrapping paper.
I’ll admit this one works best when the kids are young and their paintings are of nothing in particular (that we can tell anyway). Now that my daughter paints distinguishable unicorn jellyfish and Paw Patrol characters, they’re not as suitable for wrapping paper. However if I tell her that our painting activity is specifically for wrapping paper, she is thrilled with the chance to show off her painting skills for others to see.
5. Fabric
I hate to throw away fabric. I actually can’t do it anymore. If clothes are unwearable I’ll either save them for an undetermined use (such as eco friendly wrapping paper) especially if it’s a large t-shirt or collect for sending to Upparel for recycling.
Old sheets work perfectly too and are especially handy for large gifts. For gifts to family members in the same household, a pillow case works well too.
Furoshiki wrapping is a Japanese method of wrapping gifts in a square cloth. There are many different ways you can tie the cloth with two examples shown in this video from 1 Million Women.
6. Use leaves for gift tags
I am terrible at coming up with messages for cards so I am am more than happy to just add a gift tag to presents. Leaves are a lovely gift tag idea to add a bit of nature to your present.
7. Flower bouquet wraps
If you’re lucky enough to be given flowers, save the wrap that they come in. It is usually a large sheet of thick soft plastic that is perfect for wrapping presents and often brightly coloured. Being quite durable as opposed to paper wrapping paper alternatives, this material can be reused multiple times.
8. Reuse wrapping paper
I remember as a kid thinking it was such a penny pinching notion to save wrapping paper but now in my reducing waste mindset I am preaching just that.
When you receive gifts in wrapping paper, try to save the wrapping paper for reuse, especially large pieces.
9. Gift bags
I assume everybody does this anyway but save any gift bags you receive and reuse them for your next gift.
10. Eco wrapping paper
Reusing what you already have is the most eco friendly option but if you need to buy new wrapping paper, there are recycled options to choose from. Have a look at these gorgeous prints from Earth Greetings available at Biome.
Give your recyclables a second life as wrapping paper.
I find such satisfaction in creating a beautiful presented gift in a sustainable way at no cost. Are you looking forward to trying these eco friendly wrapping paper alternatives? Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried any of these or you plan to give them a go.
More ways to celebrate in an eco friendly way
- 50+ Consumable gift ideas – no more stuff!
- Environmentally friendly alternatives to balloons
- 37+ Plastic free party bag ideas
- Eco friendly Mother’s Day gift ideas
- Try a Reverse Advent Calendar
Image credit:
Bouquet image by Arjun Lama on Unsplash
Thank you for sharing this post. I hadn’t thought about using some of the items you had suggested. I’m going to be more mindful of what is in my house that I can use for wrapping paper
These are great ideas! I especially love the idea of using paper bags. I have a ton of them that can be used for this purpose. Thank you!
Great ideas! I want to use fabric this holiday season.
Wow, those are beautiful wrappings for presents. I’ve used newspaper before, but I never thought of putting ivory or vines on it. My son, 3, has made his own wrapping paper with paper, shaving cream, and food coloring. I have yet to try the cloth. I’d probably use t-shirts I want to give away as presents, anyway, and wrap smaller gifts in them. Are the cloths meant to be thrown away, or to be regifted?
Using a tshirt that’s part of the gift anyway is a great idea. Hopefully the fabrics wouldn’t be thrown away. Second hand scarves or tea towels are a good option that clearly gave another purpose otherwise depending on who you’re giving it to you could always tell them they can reuse or give it back if they are unlikely to.
I love all of these options! Great ideas!! I have been slowly adding to a stash of cloth gift bags made from pillow cases (I find at thrift stores). And I save all of our brown paper to wrap with.
What great ideas! I particularly love the idea of using kids artwork!
Love these ideas. I love to reuse what I already have, and hadn’t thought of reusing as gift wrapping. Super crafty! Thanks for the ideas.
I am so doing kids artwork as wrapping paper! Great suggestions!
How eclectic. Great ideas and thanks for sharing!
These are such cute ideas! Thanks for sharing!
Great ideas! Thanks for sharing!
These are great ideas. We love wrapping grandparents’ presents in kid’s artwork and they love it too!
I love these ideas! I’m taking small steps to living more sustainable. These are very helpful.