Sustainable Gift Wrap
The main idea I want to share today is Furoshiki gift wrap, aka fabric gift wrap. It’s a traditional Japanese wrapping cloth, which is traditionally used to wrap and transport clothes, home decor, and other items. The beauty with this fabric wrap is that it’s very elegant, fun, eco friendly and of course reusable.
What’s so bad a about a festive wrapping paper?
“Consumers in the UK will use 227,000 miles of wrapping paper each year - over 83km2 of this will end up in our bins
- the average household will go through 4 rolls of wrapping paper”
That’s not even to mention every roll that’s wrapped in a plastic film too! The GWP Group says that the “average household will go through 4 rolls of wrapping paper”. The waste in itself, whether thats recyclable or not, could be reduced and a fabric gift wrap is a lovely alternative. Why not ask the person you give the gift to, to reuse it when they next give a present or ask if you can have the fabric back. People generally won’t mind, just explain how you’d like to reduce the amount of wrapping you use.
What fabric, size and shape is best?
There’s no right or wrong here! I would say a square piece is probably easiest but you can always fold or cut it to how you need it. It would also depend on the shape of the gift you will be wrapping. Here’s some ideas for fabrics:
Tea towels - the ones you have in your kitchen draw that don’t absorb water but are really pretty… you know the ones.
Old scarves - lovely soft fabric, easy to wrap different shapes and gives them a new purpose.
Muslin cloths - added bonus points if you’ve got a present for a new Mum/Mum-to-be as it can later be reused for the baby.
Cotton fabric - are you someone who enjoys sewing? Why not see if you’ve got some spare cotton/fabrics somewhere.
Old clothing - a piece of clothing that’s beyond repair or going to a new home, if it’s the right size for the gift then why not reuse it for wrapping.
Here’s how to wrap:
I used a basic box to gift wrap as an example but online there’s a lot of tutorials for different shape gifts, and ways of wrapping them.
Click here to watch: IDSG fabric wrap video
what if i can’t get hold of fabrics?
If you are using wrapping paper here’s a few ideas to ensure it’s as eco friendly as can be:
Swap to paper tape - I use paper tape when it comes to wrapping (or any occasion where I would have previously reached for the sticky tape), and it’s a swap that makes me think about and regret all the times that I used that horrible, non recyclable sellotape.
Whilst I’m encouraging as many people as possible to shop local and small this year, if you can’t for whatever reason and you receive parcels stuffed with paper or tissue paper, keep them and use for gift wrapping.
Use twine, string, old ribbons or anything of this sort to wrap around gifts and tie in a bow.
Use brown paper, make it festive with dried orange slices, greenery and twine.
Make your own labels, scrap paper, card, stamps, hand drawn or written messages tied with string (just use a hole punch if you want a perfect circle to thread through).
remember these tips on Christmas day:
If you receive a gift wrapped using sellotape, peel it off the paper before you pop the paper into the recycling, as it will compromise the paper recycling if left on. Paper with shiny patterns or glitter are a mix of plastic and other materials so these papers cannot be recycled either. If in doubt do the scrunch test, by scrunching the paper into a ball and if it holds its shape you can recycle it.
Hopefully this will inspire some more creative, greener gift wrapping. If you want less gifts to wrap, take a look at my post about Sustainable Secret Santa.