lover la reuse and recycle holiday wrap wrappingsI love beautifully wrapped Christmas presents, our earth, and tidying up on Sundays for a fresh start to the new week, but when these three things collide…yikes! Overload. Not enough Gwen Stefani.

Sad fact: Did you know that “Americans throw away 25% more trash during the holidays than any other time of year, amounting to 25 million extra tons of garbage? However, if every family reused just two feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet.” Stanford University. Whoa. That would be quite a gift to our mother nature.

lover la reuse and recycle holiday wrap folded for storage

What can we do?

A simple way our family helps the environment is by committing to a lifestyle of “reuse or recycle” even when it comes to wrappings. True, it takes a little more time, but I know our wallets, and more significantly, our planet, benefit from our efforts. Here’s our system:

Reuse:

  • Fold and store any gift bags and boxes that can be reused.
  • Fold and store any tissue paper that isn’t ripped and reuse it throughout the upcoming year as filler in the bottom of a gift bag with a few new, fresh pieces on top for presentation. Great for birthdays and other gifting occasions as well!
  • Store unripped ribbons and bows.

We use an oversized gift bag to store our boxes, larger gift bags, and rolls of wrapping paper. Smaller gift bags, tissue paper, ribbons, and bows are stored in totes.

Recycle:

  • Ripped and unusable wrappings, along with store packaging, go in a brown paper bag and head to the recycling bin.

Almost nothing goes in the trash except for the smashed candy cane bits you find in the bottom of a tote bag. Unless you eat them. No judgment.

lover la reuse and recycle holiday wrap keepsake wrappings

Keepsake wrappings.

When I want to keep special pieces of wrapping or handwritten tags, I place them in a small bag or box marked with the year and store it in one of our Christmas totes. They’re another sweet thing to look back on over the years when we take the holiday bins out each December.

So, how about it?

What are some of your daily habits that help our planet? What do you do with your ripped-open Christmas wrap and accessories? I know it’s easier to throw it all away, but do you think it’s worth a try to reuse and recycle? It would be amazing to tie a bow around the earth together this coming year!

 

I’m listening to: