gift wrapping - environmental impact and sustainable (beautiful) options
Are you about to start wrapping using mountains of paper?! Stop now, don’t buy any more of that ridiculous throw-away stuff. Small changes, such as using fabric Furoshiki wrapping cloths, or reusing artworks, or loving the paper you used last year, make a difference. And small changes start a conversation with friends and family. I’m sharing quick and easy gift wrapping ideas using sustainable, eco gift options.
My lovely sweet friend, Zoe, sent this gift to me. She truly is a gift-wrapping master. The hole-punched leaves and garlands (see below) are so sweet.
When we were growing up wrapping paper was a special thing in our house. By this I mean - we didn't buy endless rolls of wrapping paper just because, my parents bought beautiful special paper and we made it last. Every gift that was given was wrapped with care (often without sticky tape), and unwrapped with even more care. There was none of that tearing paper open on Christmas morning; we'd gently unwrap and then fold the paper ready for its next use. I remember one particular special piece of paper that lasted in our family - being gifted around and around - for years, and by years I mean more than 10 or 15 years.
This is just one small part that makes my family different to many other families, but it's something that my siblings and I appreciate and respect (then and now), and now our own children follow the same 'care for the wrapping paper' ways. Yay for that!
It's these small, and often un-thought-of environmental changes that you can make in your daily life. They don't take a lot of extra effort, just a new way of thinking, training your brain in a different way. Change like this is good, slow and small, but hopefully long lasting and trickles down to the next generation.
Another way of wrapping your gifts with a sustainable and environmental underpinning is the Japanese art of Furoshiki. Those Japanese are super clever aren't they - with their origami ways, their artful ideas, their simple beautiful thoughts.
Furoshiki is, in essence, a piece of cloth used to wrap and tie around an item. We have a book in our bookshelf called How to Wrap 5 Eggs! Fabulous. Basically using the right size you can wrap a present for a friend, lunch for your kids, a bottle of wine to take for dinner, a pot plant, even make yourself a handbag or a new top to wear.
I will admit that gifting special fabric to everyone in your life might not work, especially school friends who won't even know what to do with it; but if you re-think the whole gift then the wrapping can be part of the present.
Gifting environmentally thoughtful presents sparks a conversation. It allows you to educate your friends or family on how small things can make a big difference. I did a little googling, just so I could shock you a little....
Environmental effects of wrapping paper - The UK alone uses more than 8,000 tons of wrapping paper a year, that equates to 50,000 tress being cut down. In the USA about half of all paper products consumed is wrapping paper, which is thrown away after one use. Consider also that many gift wraps (especially cheaper bulk buy ones) come wrapped in plastic wrap, and many gifts are secured with sticky tape and plastic bows and ribbons, while some wrapping options aren't even paper but cheap foil that isn't or can't be recycled. Attach a gift card and you're looking at more than 100,000 trees being cut down (in USA) each year just for throw away gift wrapping. (I'm not even going get into the environmental impact of the gifts that come inside the wrapping paper!).
But it can be different. It's estimated that the average American gives 42 gifts each year, if only 3 of those are wrapped in recycled options it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields! This shows that small change is effective and powerful. That your actions do in fact help. And that as a community - or country - we can make change.
Quick & easy alternatives for paper or foil gift wrapping:
1: Make some fabric pouches or bags - you could re-use them every year in your own family, or they’ll become something special that other people love using.
2: Use recycled brown paper bags - turn them inside out if need be, paint them if you want. And use some string or a pretty ribbon, with a piece of lovely leaf tucked into it.
3: Shoe boxes - covered in paintings or fabric covered.
4: Old jam jars for gifting home baked biscuits, chocolates or jams / pickles, or spices. Or even some marbles or home made playdough for young kids. (you must click through to my old blog here to see my girl when she was little, and a very simple play-dough recipe using turmeric and hibiscus flowers are the colours).
5. You can seriously get really ‘recycle-y’ by turning postage bags inside out. Some of them are actually quite interesting, and would make for great gift wrapping for the right person. Some people might not get it.
6. Tissue paper from old dressmaking patterns. The op-shops / thrift-stores are full of these, and let’s be honest there are many that will never be sewn or items that people will wear. Instead of buying new tissue use these. I wrap all my customer orders in these and love it.
You don't need to use expensive linen or beautiful silk scarves, but can indeed op-shop (thrift-store) some sheets, tea towels or fabric pieces for very little money and cut it into sizes suitable for various objects. You could pre-make some furoshiki wraps or make them as needed to match the size of the gift.
Here's some ideas to customise the fabric - art it up perhaps:
1: Get the kids to paint a giant sheet before you cut & hem it, or leave the edges raw
2: Dye it, with natural dyes of course - simple kitchen scraps make beautiful dyes. Turmeric is perfect for fabric that doesn’t need to last a long time (it fades quickly), and onion skins are super easy to dye with (both the red and the brown onions - ask your fruit shop to gather some up for you).
3: Do some fun random stitching on the fabric - either by hand or machine. Random machine stitching in bright colours is super fun to do and very effective
4: Find some of that crazy funky fabric you'd never use for clothing; I bet it's perfect for gift wrapping. I know you’ve got something hiding in the cupboard somewhere… an old tablecloth perhaps.
5: Make sure you include a printed instruction sheet for people to pass on the wrapping tradition to someone else. Here's a great downloadable from the Japanese government website. (until I find or make a better one).
6: If you want to learn how to make some like I have pictured here, I share the how-to on my fabric printing online course.
7: Make some fabric pouches or bags - you could re-use them every year in your own family, or they’ll become something special that other people love using.
blog categories :
Books & words | Craft Tutorials | Creative Process | Motherhood | My artwork | Natural & Botanical Dye | Workshops & Gatherings
you might enjoy these blog post too:
01 : Slow your life with craft
02 : Simple gifting ideas for an eco-Christmas
03 : Craft & anxiety
