Saturday at Center for Living Peace, Sarah Fisher showed us how to get creative with gift wrap. Exchanging gifts with loved ones during the holidays is an opportunity to share sentiments of love and peace. We use once-loved, recycled or reusable materials to ensure the biggest impact of gift giving is the thought behind the gift itself. Recognizing that the decisions we make – down to the details of gift-wrap – affect our planet, honors the deep connection we share to all living things.
Why not regular gift-wrap?
-Americans produce an additional 1 million tons of trash each week between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day (EPA).
-If every American household chose to wrap just three gifts with reused materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.
-If each household reused just two feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon spared could tie a bow around the planet!
-Conventional wrapping paper is wasteful and, in most cases, not even recyclable – it’s also expensive. In this class, we’ll learn how to reduce our holiday footprint and save a few bucks while we’re at it.
Your New Holiday Wrapping “Shopping” List
Gift Wrap: Newspaper, Burlap/muslin, Old sheet music, Cloth/fabric, Sweaters or clothing, Old greeting cards, Old posters, 2010 calendars
Children’s artwork, Reusable bags/Shopping bags
Ceramic Pots, Restaurant menus,
Large leaves, Tins
, Glass Jars,
Packaging envelopes, Clean food boxes, The gift itself: scarfs, mittens, tiffins, handkerchiefs,Recycled papers
Seal: Raffia, Twine, Tape, Yarn
Stuffing: Real Peanuts, Real popcorn, Pine needles, Shredded paper
Finishing Touches: Flowers – fresh or dried, Herbs – fresh or dried, Pine cones, Unpaired earrings, Buttons, Beads
A Few More Tips:
(dreamjamworld.com)
- If you must buy wrapping paper, at least buy wrapping paper made from recycled paper or from renewable materials (banana tree bark or bamboo). EPA has found that recycled paper materials result in 74% less air pollution and 35% less water pollution than making paper from new materials. Recycled products tend to be more expensive than the new fancy paper you have become accustomed to, but they are a lot less expensive in terms of environmental impact.
-Better than paper made from recycled paper is used paper BEFORE it is recycled! Yes, look in your recycling bin. If you just bought the gift, there may be a department store shopping bag near the top. Generally those bags are made of strong and often beautifully colored paper. Why not reuse the bag you carried the gift home in by cutting it up for gift-wrap?
-For that matter, instead of putting your newspaper or brown paper bags directly into the recycling bin, use it to wrap your gifts. For a minimalist look, you can use the paper “as is”. Or use the paper as a canvas for your creativity. You can print the paper with stamps or augment it with crayons or markers. You could cut out bold figures from magazine ads and paste them on. You could also enlist your child to help with decorating the box with paint or crayons or with some direct mail stickers! Or, simply by add evergreen sprigs, pine cones, seashells, buttons, etc.
-Your recycling bin provides some surprises too. When turned inside out, the mailing envelopes that The United States Postal Office so thoughtfully provides make wonderful wrapping paper! The envelopes are made of Tyvek paper, which is as malleable as fabric but stiff like paper, white and waterproof! In short, it is the perfect wrapping material and a wonderful canvas for your creativity.
