It's Officially Time To Ban Gift-Wrapping Paper

[SunSeeker]

According to an August report from Sundale Research, people in the U.S. spent a total of $12.7 billion on gift wrap, including wrapping paper, tissue paper and gift bags, in 2017. What a waste. This is stuff designed to be torn into shreds and tossed away in less than 60 seconds.

Do you like decorations and artistic flourishes on your presents? Well, be selective. “If it has glitter or tape, it’s not recyclable,” Celia Ristow of Litterless told HuffPost.

Glitter-encrusted paper is especially terrible for a couple of reasons. It can’t be recycled, for one. What’s more, glitter is made from teensy pieces of plastic that not only appear in your hair weeks later but also pollute the oceans, according to National Geographic. Marine animals often ingest these little specks, and over time, collect them in their stomachs, which can be fatal.

Kellogg agreed that brown paper can be made into a beautiful wrapping option, especially when spruced up with a sprig of evergreen, a dehydrated orange slice of a stick of cinnamon (and then you have the added bonus of scented gift wrap). With this option, “you still get the feeling of getting to rip through paper,” Kellogg said, with the ability to recycle when you’re done. https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5c1d5c12e4b0407e907af36c

[Joe941]

1. Agreed. We also need to ban a lot of other stuff too.

[oberliner]

4. Like what?

[ret5hd]

13. Trolls would be nice.

[oberliner]

16. Agreed

They are hideous.

[Joe941]

23. Plastic bags.

[violetpastille]

26. +1

[oberliner]

31. That seems to be happening

At least in some places.

[Siwsan]

2. I used to wrap the kids gifts in the Sunday comic pages

Served the purpose, just fine.

[csziggy]

5. My sister used to do that

Now we really don't exchange gifts in my family.

My husband's family does a "Dirty Santa" gift exchange and we just throw things in gift bags - and save the old ones to reuse. For medium sized gifts, we get reusable grocery bags that are decorated with holiday themes. That way the recipient gets a two for one - the main gift and a reusable bags!

[Siwsan]

6. My dad would buy something spectacular, and 'wrap' it in a garbage bag

He loved giving us one really nice and very useful gift and they were either too big or too heavy to wrap, anyway. The garbage bags were put to use, before the day was over.

My sister made gift bags out of festive flannel fabric. They had draw strings and she used them for years.

[csziggy]

12. I like the idea of fabric gift bags!

If I ever get my sewing studio set up, I may try to do that using quilt fabric rather than flannel - I have lots of quilt fabric that may never get made into a quilt, so why not?

[Ohiogal]

11. I did the exact same thing!

They were all boys who really couldn't have cared less about pretty wrapping paper. And, since we lived on one income, I have always been kind of frugal.

[Croney]

3. I hate this kind of waste so much, I reuse gift bags until they fall apart.

Everyone in my family knows to return gift bags to me so I can slap a new tag on them next year and hand them out again. Even tissue paper gets back to me.

I might be a kook but it makes me happy.

[deurbano]

7. Me, too! I try to find bags with the recipient's name already stuck on, but lots of times I fail

and just keeping sticking new stickers on the old ones. At this point, some of the original recipients are deceased!

This does contribute to my unfortunate tendency toward hoarding, though, which combined with my minimalist aesthetic sense makes for a lot of internal conflict.

[SMC22307]

10. LOL Oh, look, Aunt Betty... Christmas 1993!

A nice walk down memory lane...

[deurbano]

14. I actually have a deceased "Aunt Betty" originally tagged on some of those reused bags!

(She died at 106, so lots of Christmas bags!)

[SMC22307]

15. 106! Wow.

My Aunt Betty made it to early-90s... a delight 'til the end.

[SMC22307]

8. Fellow kook, here.

I just smoothed out and folded some cute candy-cane tissue paper that came with a gift (I opened early!).

[csziggy]

17. My brother in law and his wife had some lovely gift boxes they reused until they fell apart

One was a rhinoceros (I don't remember what the other was). They had gotten them from some fancy shop their first Christmas together and exchanged their gifts to each other in them every year for nearly twenty years. When the boxes got too fragile to re-use they retired them.

I think I will keep buying reusable grocery bags - Publix sells ones with seasonal or other themes - to give presents in when our current batch of gift bags run out.

I hate wrapping presents anyway, so a bag makes it so much easier!

[PatSeg]

18. I mostly reuse gift bags too

and people return them to me. I was also thinking festive fabric might be nice and could be used many times.

Reusable shopping bags are a good way to go as well.

[Liberty Belle]

9. Don't ban gift bags - they are reusable.

Maybe ban glitter paper, but not the rest.

Our family reuses gift bags for 99% of our gifts each year. We use paper only for bulky odd-sized items that won't fit even the largest gift bags.

We also reuse bows year after year, with tape once the original sticky backs have been used.

Decorating with leaves and flowers isn't practical with pets that could eat things that might make them sick. I don't know if cinnamon sticks are okay for pets but it sounds like an attractive idea, same with the dried oranges and springs of pine.

We do not use tinsel (toxic for pets) nor rolls of ribbon that pets can ingest, causing blockages.

We also buy decorative boxes at the 99 cent store and use them over several times until they fall apart. You don't need wrapping paper with those.

Another idea is to take brown paper and use a stamp and ink to create a pattern of your own.

The 99 cent store also has reusable Christmas stockings that can be used instead of bags or wrapping for things like a bottle of wine, or stuffed full of several small items.

[stopbush]

20. The 99 cent store is indeed your friend when it comes to oversized bags as well.

Last year, I got two huge bags for $1 each that easily held bed-in-a-bag comforter sets. About three feet tall.

[Grammy23]

21. Brown craft paper is also inexpensive and can be found in big rolls.

They can be used universally for holidays or birthdays year round. Just vary the color of the decorations. Kids can be involved by giving them “stamps” out of potato cut in half and carved. Use nontoxic kids’ paint. Twine or ribbon can work, too.

We need to make an effort to recycle the paper and gift bags we may receive. It will take a lot of effort to make people break the habit of using pretty paper and fancy gift bags, but if they figure out how much money they can save, they might be motivated to try to cut down.

[SunSeeker]

22. Gift bags are great--and you don't need ribbon or tape for them.

[stopbush]

19. Most of our gifts end up in Xmas bags that we use over and over again.

Better than using brown bags as wrapping paper. Why throw out anything?

[akraven]

24. Plain brown paper, hemp string -

no tape and if it's decorated, it's with seeds for local birds and cones for squirrels!

Surrounded by huge live evergreens, so occasionally a shed branch.

[SunSeeker]

27. "Brown paper packages tied up in string...these are a few of my favorite things."

[akraven]

29. LOL! Every time we go to the feed store

for both, spouse breaks out in this song - and has a great voice! We literally reuse/recycle everything we can.

But he still teases me about the crayon drawings on the brown paper...….

[NickB79]

25. A friend is using aluminum foil this year

Easy to fold, no tape needed, you can write on it with a Sharpie, and foil is infinitely recyclable.

[Mendocino]

28. I go to garage sales

and buy old tins. Many already are have holiday motifs.

[wasupaloopa]

30. Were we ate yesterday the had banned straws and

drink lids.

Lot’s of plastic going in the ocean here in CA.