Tuesday, December 18, 2007
It’s the Wrap that Counts
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It’s Christmas morning. Your kids tear into their presents, tossing all the wrapping paper and ribbon you so thoughtfully selected onto the floor. Left behind is a synthetic heap of red, green, and gold waiting to be carted off to the landfill.
It’s an image that can make any green consumer queasy.
From Thanksgiving to New Years Day, American household waste increases by more than 25 percent, according to the web site Use Less Stuff . All of the food waste, shopping bags, packaging, cards, wrapping paper, bows, and ribbons that make our holiday merry add up to one million tons of additional waste per week to our landfills.
So what is a stylish woman determined to reduce her well-heeled carbon footprint to do? According to Christie Matheson, author of the soon to be released Green Chic you don’t have to sacrifice style to make your holiday gift wrapping more eco-friendly. “I suggest people start by thinking outside the box, so to speak,” jokes Matheson, who recommends making the wrapping part of the present whenever possible. “One year, I wrapped my sister’s gift in an organic cotton tee-shirt and tied it with a chocolate brown silk ribbon. It looked great.”
Remember “reduce, reuse, recycle.” Reuse paper items that you already have and would otherwise throw away. Old maps, leftover wallpaper, used calendars, (endless) catalogs and shopping bags can all be reused to wrap presents. Matheson says, “I think Kraft paper, which is used to make grocery bags, can look very natural and rustic with a brightly colored ribbon around it. Anything you can do that cuts down on waste is good.”
Reusable gift bags are easy to find, but since paper can be easily damaged, consider using sturdier cloth gift bags instead. Wrapsacks offers a cotton gift bag with an assigned number, allowing its travels to be tracked on its web site as it is reused. Seabags makes wine bags out of recycled sails inscribed with “Recycle, Re-gift, Rejoice.” On the back of the bag, the reusable label records the names of all who use it.
Other sites for reusable gift bags include fwraps and luckycrow .
If you simply can not imagine the holidays without brightly wrapped presents, make the switch to recycled wrapping paper, which takes less energy to produce and is easier than ever to find. Look for paper made with a high percentage of post-consumer waste content - waste that would otherwise end up in landfills. Chlorine-free processing and vegetable-based inks are other eco-friendly features to look for.
And while most traditional wrapping paper that is heavily dyed, shiny or has glitter embedded in it is not recyclable, most recycled wrapping paper is.
Paporganics makes holiday wrap printed with vegetable ink on paper made from 10% hemp and flax straw and 90% post-consumer waste. Hemp is a renewable resource that doesn’t require pesticides to grow, lessening its overall environmental impact.
“When we first started this company in 2003, there were very few choices for recycled wrapping paper out there,” recalls Camille Campbell, the New Hampshire-based company’s founder. “We’re seeing a pretty good increase in demand with greater awareness.” This year the company, whose holiday line includes poinsettia, dove, snowflake, and holly designs reported a 25 percent increase in business.
Paper Source, Fish Lip Paper Designs and Smith and Hawken are other good places to find earth-friendly holiday paper .
For ribbon, Paporganics offers cotton ribbon colored with soy-based inks that is both recyclable and biodegradable. Cream City Ribbon is eco friendly too.
And remember that all of the beautiful ribbon you wrap around your presents this year can be saved and reused next year.
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