Waste Prevention in Gift Wrapping: 10 Simple Ideas

Here are ideas from the California Integrated Waste Management Board at http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/PublicEd/Holidays/

(1) Design your own gift-wrap by using a paper grocery or department store bag; have the kids add decorations.

(2) Spruce up brown paper wrapping with pretty bows (and save them for next year).

(3) Purchase sturdier gift bags and reuse them each year.

(4) For large, hard to wrap gifts, just add a large fancy bow.

(5) Or hide large, unwieldy gifts and give the person a card with a clue to lead them to the present.

(6) Fold up gift boxes and use them again.

(7) Christmas stockings are great for little gifts.

(8) Some gifts come in decorated gift boxes. Just add a bow and a gift tag (made from last year’s Christmas cards).

(9) Wrap gifts in the funny pages or old posters.

(10) If you do use store-bought wrapping paper, buy the kind with recycled content (the more postconsumer, the better).

You and your family can live the Catholic Social Teaching of "Caring for God's Creation" by reducing the amount of paper and ribbon going into landfills. And have a lot of fun doing it!

Care for God’s Creation by Reducing Holiday Waste

As the holiday season approaches, plan ahead to reduce your waste. Be creative and do not add to our landfills. By some very simple methods, you can act on at least two Catholic Social Doctrines: caring for God's creation and living in solidarity with others who must share the world's resources ("living more simply so that others can simply live")

The bad news: An estimated 2.6 billion holiday cards are sold each year in the United States, enough to fill a football field 10 stories high. 38,000 miles of ribbon is thrown out each year--enough to tie a bow around the Earth.

The good news: The California Integrated Waste Management Board has a great website with many practical ideas to help you care for God’s creation this holiday season by reducing your own waste: http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/PublicEd/Holidays/ .

For example,

1. Buy rechargeable batteries,
2. Wrap jewelry in a scarf,
3. Wrap a kitchen gift in a new dish towel,
4. Use gift bags and save them for next year,
5. Give movie tickets, ball game tickets or other non-material gifts,
6. Give homemade cookies,
7. Use the Sunday comics as wrapping paper,
8. Make gift tags from last year’s Christmas cards, and
9. Always reuse packing peanuts.

For years, my mother-in-law has wrapped our gifts in the comics or old maps or old scraps of wall paper. For the last few years, my sister and I have put our gifts into those reusable gift sacks loosely wrapped in tissue paper. We easily reuse the bags and the tissue paper.