The Ecology Center Presents: Alternative Holiday Gift Wrapping!
We had an amazing day at CLP today. The Ecology Center came and showed us how to wrap eco-friendly gifts.
Did you know…
- Americans produce an additional one million tons of trash each week between Thanksgiving and New Years Day.
- If every household chose to wrap three gifts with reused materials it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.
- If each household reused two feet of ribbon it would save 38,000 miles of ribbon. That is enough to tie a bow around the planet!
Today we learned some simple and beautiful ways to wrap gifts that produce less waste. Here are some ideas of items you can use to create earth-friendly gift wrap:
Giftwrap:
- Newspaper
- burlap
- Old sheet music
- Outdated maps
- Cloth/fabric (scraps make great ribbon! And you can find discounted cloth in the remnant bins at many fabric stores)
- Old posters
- Old calendars
- Reusable bags
- Restaurant menus
- Tins
- Boxes
Seal:
- Raffia
- Twine
- Yarn
- Tape
Stuffing:
- Real peanuts
- Real popcorn
- Pine needles
- Shredded paper
Finishing Touches:
- Flowers– fresh or dried
- Herbs– fresh or dried
- Pine Cones
- Unpaired earrings
- Old greeting cards (they make great gift tags!)
- Buttons
Here are some gifts wrapped with old architectural plans and calendars:
Another gift-wrapping technique that the Ecology Center showed us was the Furoshiki-style. Furoshiki uses techniques similar to origami to wrap presents or carry groceries in Japan. Here are some presents that were wrapped with fabric using the Furoshiki-style!
You can find a great instructional how-to video for Yotsu Musubi (pictured above) here.
You can even use Trader Joe’s bags to create eco-friendly gift wrap! Ink & Post turned her Trader Joe’s paper bags into beautiful gift tags, and Mer Mag used hers to create beautiful gift wrap! So amazing!
Thank you to everyone that came to our class and learned how to make GOOD HAPPEN this season by producing environmentally-friendly gift wrap. And a special thanks to Morgan Greenwood from the Ecology Center for being such a wonderful teacher!
Good Happens.
Peace Grl Out.
