Christmas Wrapping Paper: The Eco Friendly Guide

Christmas is the season of giving. And Christmas wrapping paper is a huge part of the whole experience. Yes, you can buy the traditional Hallmark wrapping paper, or you can try something different. A little more eco friendly.

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This Green Guide to Christmas Wrapping Paper lays out the traditional vs. alternatives to see how and where you can make a difference this year.

Christmas Wrapping Paper Quick Facts

The sheer volume of Christmas wrapping paper used each year is staggering. It’s important to keep this in mind when shopping for your next roll (if you do at all). The following quick facts have been taken from various up to date sources and highlight why we seriously need to reconsider our wrapping paper habits.

Volume & Environmental Impact

Here are some of the environmental statistics and numbers that are worth knowing when it comes to wrapping paper.

• The amount of wrapping paper used and thrown away for Christmas in the UK alone is 226,800 miles [365,000km] (enough to stretch nine times around the world.
• This is equal to every household using 4 rolls each
• Each year (in the UK) it costs around £168 million ( USD$216 million) of taxpayer dollars to dispose of Christmas wapping waste into landfills
• In the USA an additional 4 million tons of waste (wrapping paper and shopping bags) are generated every holiday season (that’s over half a million elephants in weight).
• According to the Wall Street Journal, gift wrapping sales in the U.S. totaled $9.36 billion in 2010 (more than the combined GDP of Africa’s 9 poorest countries). 

Christmas paper is single-use

Wrapping paper might seem like a harmless seasonal novelty. It’s only paper, right?

In most cases, the answer is no. Christmas wrapping paper is particularly notorious for being blended with plastic and glitter. This combination makes it unrecyclable. It means that (generally) wrapping paper is used once (single use). As our landfills overflow with trash we simply don’t have space or capacity to keep creating single-use items.

They are far too taxing on our resources and environment.

Christmas Wrapping Paper Alternatives

What we’re seeing around the world at Christmas time are huge amounts of waste produced. The current system is overloading our waste capabilities and putting significant strain on the environment. However, there are some great alternatives out there. When spending Christmas in Aspen Colorado and used recycled newspaper to wrap gifts, and in the Caribbean island, Grenada, we used banana leaves to wrap our presents.

Christmas is the season of giving. So let’s give our planet a break.

Eco friendly Christmas Wrapping Ideas

The best way to be eco friendly this Christmas season is to think along the following lines that “less is more”.

Like all things waste-related, the aim is to:

• Reduce – less number of gifts (quality/thoughtfulness over quantity means less wrapping), or gifts that art necessarily a physical object (a gift certificate for an experience for example).
• Reuse – can you reuse last year’s wrapping? Or any other kind of material (ideas explained shortly)
• Recycle – using materials that are truly recyclable can significantly reduce our ever-growing waste piles!

Wrapping paper is widely used and therefore has become the mainstream/norm, however, there are other creative ways that you can “wrap” or present a gift during the festive season that can be much more personalised.

The following ideas can be implemented as an alternative to traditional wrapping paper.

Eco friendly gift wrapping options

• Kraft paper
• Newspaper
• Literally any other kind of used paper
• Used Boxes
• Second-hand Fabric

How to make Christmas wrapping paper

If you are going to go with a paper option, it’s best to start with something used (to save buying new – it’s cheaper and creates less waste).

1. Newspaper

Newspaper is widely available and in many cases can be found as scrap for free. It makes excellent wrapping paper and can easily be turned into a stylish piece with the addition of some string and a leaf or two.

2. Use Brown Kraft Paper

Brown Kraft paper made from recycled paper is a great option if you want to buy something new. The recycled paper means that there is less going to landfill.

Brown not might sound like the most festive option for decorating or getting that festive look. But there are lots of simple ways that you can get creative and add a Christmasy feel.

Add an artistic touch:

• Rubber stamps are a great choice. You can buy them from most craft stores
• Alternatively, you can make your own potato stamps!
  • Potatoes are great because you can easily cut them into shape and they hold paint so that it will stick to any surface
  • Cut a potato in half. Use a cookie cuter to cut out a shape (or just freestyle a shape). Stick some paint on it and you have a zero waste stamp.

3. Used Fabric

Got a worn t-shirt or scarf that you’re tired of? Try cutting it and using it to wrap your gift.

If not, you can always try a thrift store. There are normally great, cheap finds in the bins with a selection of old scarfs and handkerchiefs that make great wraps!

You can wrap your gift using the Japanese Furoshiki style:

• Cut the fabric so it is square in shape and large enough to cover your gift
• Place the gift in the middle of the square (diagonally)
• Fold the top and bottom corners over the gift and tie up the other two corners in a knot

4. Glass Jars

Old pasta sauce jars and mason jars are great for any small gifts that can fit in it. There’s a whole range of DIY mason jar gift ideas, from planting little succulents in them, to making edible gifts!

5. Reusable bags

There are so many different reusable bags out there now. Some are made with Christmas patterns. These can be used over and over again!

Eco Friendly Christmas Wrapping Paper

Wrappily uses recycled newspaper and prints beautiful patters with a soy-based ink on both sides to create a stunning reversible design. They are recyclable and compostable in backyard and industrial facilities.

Eco Friendly Wrapping Paper on Amazon

If you are going to buy Christmas wrapping paper this season, Kraft wrapping paper is an environmentally friendly option, because it can be recycled and reused, and you can also find some Kraft paper that is made from recycled waste pulp.

Eco friendly tape on Amazon

There is an “eco-friendly” tape option. It is 60% bio-based material and solvent-free. This makes a much better option than traditional, clear sticky tape.

Use string/twine over plastic ribbons and bows

Twine on brown paper (with a piece of left or branch) looks great! Avoid those plastic ribbons that cannot be recycled due to their glue!

Traditional Christmas Wrapping Paper Options

There are many off the shelf Christmas wrapping paper options. Large companies have been making this stuff for generations and know how to make it cheap. Here are some of the traditional style wrapping paper and why they aren’t eco-friendly.

Target Christmas Wrapping Paper

Target has a large selection of wrapping paper. You can search by category of print style pattern (Santa, Animals, Plaid, Trees, Snowman) or scroll through them all.

Product:

They have two different brands on sale, Sugar Paper, and Wondershop.

Sugar Paper is based in Los Angeles and makes “boutique” pieces. However, in their team-up with Target they have an imported product (assuming to keep the prices low, but keep the name). They do note that paper has FSC certification, which ensures “that products come from responsibly managed forests that provide environmental, social and economic benefits”. Wondershop is Target’s own US brand, though some pieces are also imported.

Price:

Both are priced similar with 4 rolls at $10 to $15 USD, while individual rolls are priced at $5 to $6 USD. Note that the Sugar Paper rolls are generally 30 sq ft and the Wondershop is 40 to 50 sq ft.

Eco Friendly?

While the Sugar Paper does have the FCS certification, all of the options have shiny/reflective prints on the paper. This means that the paper will not recycle (paper & plastic/metallic mix).

They do have one option set from Wondershop that offers plain brown paper (with one roll of red plain paper). This paper could be recycled. This is priced at $10 USD for the two rolls.

Hallmark Christmas Wrapping Paper

Hallmark has a huge range of Christmas wrapping paper with a total of 94 options under the wrapping paper section (this includes different combinations of wrapping styles).

You can search by:

• Feature – gloss, foil, glitter, etc.
• Character – children’s cartoon characters (Harry Potter to Frosty the Snowman, etc.)
• Theme – rustic, sci-fi, winter wonderland, etc.

Product:

There is little detail about where the paper comes from, however, it does state that paper comes from “well-managed forest”

Price:

The average price is $4.99 per 45sq ft roll (however, there are discounts on most products to buy one and get 50% of another).

Eco friendly?

Not particularly. All the styles have significant amounts of material shine over the paper which means that there is a significant amount of plastic mixed into the paper to make it unable to be recycled.

Walmart Christmas Wrapping Paper

Walmart, not surprisingly, has a huge range of Christmas wrapping paper. Their site has over 900 options that come under the search term, wrapping paper.

You can search through the options via:

• Colour
• Price
• Availability
• Top Brands/user favourites/best sellers

Products:

There are approximately 100 different brands of Christmas wrapping paper stocked on the website (one of which includes Hallmark). This lends itself to a variety of quality and styles.

Price:

On average the price is still around $5 per roll based on a 30sq. ft (per roll)

Eco friendly?

Out of all the hundreds of options, there are only a couple that is aren’t covered in decorative shine. One option is by “JAM” which is straight white, matt finish paper. However, is quite expensive at $20 for 50 sq. ft. While Walmart has A LOT of options they’re not a great eco friendly choice.

Current Catalog

Current Catalog has a Christmas wrapping paper section on their website with around 50 different options. Products are displayed (mostly) with varying prices. This is indicating that the lower ($2.99) option is for the tags and the remaining is for the paper itself.

You can search for the options under the following categories:

• Price
• Alphabetical Order (if you know what brand you are looking for)

Products:

There is limited information on the brands or the background information of the products, however, most of the printed paper states that it is printed in the USA.

Price:

• Rolls are priced at $8.99 and are 67 sq. ft
• 2 Rolls are $7.99 each
• 3 Rolls are $6.99 each

Eco friendly?

They do have plain Kraft paper options in varying colours. Without more information on the paper background it is hard to say more about the eco friendly-ness of the source. However, like all of the shiny printed options, those with metallic and plastic finishes cannot be recycled.

A brief history on Christmas wrapping paper

To give you a better idea on just how wrapping paper is made here are some quick facts about the process:

• It’s believed that the act of gift-giving at Christmas originated from the biblical story of the Three Kings
• Christmas wrapping paper as we know it began in the Victorian times of England where small intricate boxes and cards were printed (exclusively for the wealthy)
• This all changed with the development of the flexography process in 1890. The new machines allowed long streams of paper to be printed around rolls with rubber stamps.

How is Christmas wrapping paper made?

This is a simplified version of the production process to give you an idea of just what is involved in the wrapping paper process.

• Wrapping paper, like all paper, comes from trees. Logs are cut and pulped, then bleached to create a white paper base.
• Companies will buy their base paper from one source and inks from another, then add the two together with their unique designs.
• The base paper runs through a roller with detailed designs and ink, gloss, metallic elements are all added.

When does Christmas wrapping paper go on sale?

We really only need Christmas printed paper once a year. Knowing this, companies often include discounted prices in the sales (i.e. state that their price is discounted for Christmas special, but they only ever sell at Christmas time anyway and the price already has the discounted budget in their advertising).

Where to buy Christmas Wrapping Paper

More and more online shopping options are available. As mentioned above, you can purchase wrapping from major vendors online (Target, Walmart, Hallmark, etc.), but during the season it seems impossible to get away from colourful rolls.

Is Christmas wrapping paper recyclable?

Can you recycle wrapping paper? It depends. Here is what you need to know when considering the answer to this question:

• Is the paper actually paper only?
  • A lot of wrapping paper has shiny/glittery embed shapes or details. This is a mix of paper and plastic (this cannot be recycled)
  • If you have non shiny paper (even with a print) it can be recycled in many places
• Is the paper covered in tape?
  • Paper with tape on it is “contaminated” and will not be able to be recycled
  • You have to physically remove the tape (on not use tape at all!)
• Where you live matters
  • Not all towns have the facilities to recycle (at all) or some have limited capabilities/sizes etc.
  • You have to check with you local council to see if you can recycle in your area
• Bows and ribbons are a no-no for recycling. Anything with glue cannot be recycled.

In the US? Can you recycle wrapping paper?

Recology, a San Francisco-based recycling company that operates in California, Oregon and Washington state said “don’t worry about getting all the tape off before you toss it in the bin, Tape’s okay.” But in general tape is not OK. It is a contamination of the paper recycling process.

In the UK? Can you recycle?

You’ll need to check with your local authority. To find out which one takes your recycling, click here for England and Northern Ireland, here for Wales and here for Scotland.

How to recycle Christmas wrapping paper

1. Don’t use ribbons, bows, glitter or glue
2. Ensure the paper is not laminated with plastic (no shine/doesn’t unfold during scrunch test)
3. Check your local council/community for their recycling options

Try the scrunch test

An easy way to check (and remember) is to do the “scrunch test”. In theory, if you scrunch wrapping paper and it stays crumbled, it is more likely paper. If it unfolds itself, there is plastic embedded/mixed into the paper itself.

It is the mix of paper and plastics/glitters/shine that cannot be recycled.

>> Got extra bags with your Christmas shopping? Click here to learn how to recycle plastic bags or plastic bag alternatives.

Where to donate Christmas wrapping paper

While wrapping paper may be taken with gratitude, if you are going to donate any items at Christmas time, toys would be preferred over wrapping paper.

The Toys for Tots organisation takes donations leading up to Christmas time. Here is how you can donate.

Choose your Christmas Wrapping and Gifts Wisely

There are some staggering numbers in this post. It brings home the fact that we really do need to curb our festive season habits. When considering your Christmas wrapping paper this season, think about the choosing a greener option:

1. Try to reuse any paper that you already have
2. Pick a brown Kraft paper, or one that doesn’t have glitter or shine on the paper itself (not blended with plastic)
3. Make your own decorations using potato stamps or small leaf cuttings (instead of plastic bows)
4. Recycle where you can

Eco Friendly Gift Ideas

If you are going to buy gifts this holiday season, try something a little more sustainable. There are so many amazing eco products out there. No matter what kind of gift you are looking for there are ways to choose smarter.

Eco Friendly Toiletries

Here are some eco friendly toiletries ideas for greener gifts:

• Zero waste shampoo
• Zero waste toothpaste

>> Click here for the ultimate guide to eco friendly toiletries, which covers a wide range of products!

Eco Travel Gifts

Almost everyone in our modern world travels to some degree. Whether it’s across the Pacific Ocean, across state lines or even a short commute to work. There are some great products out there which make eco travel that little bit easier.

• Zero waste travel products

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