Ideas for eco-friendly gift wrapping

CHRISTMAS WRAPPING PAPER - THE FACTS:

• We use 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging for gifts in the UK at Christmas.

• Most gift wrap can’t be recycled - think about bows, glitter, ribbon, string, sellotape and gift tags. These all break down into micro plastics or make them non recyclable.

• For every 1kg of wrapping paper, 3.5kg of CO2 is emitted for its production.

• On average 277,000 miles of wrapping paper gets thrown away annually.

IDEAS FOR SUSTAINABLE GIFT WRAPPING

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE: save up the free newspapers, brochures and magazines dropped through your letterbox and use them as wrapping paper. Or get some standard brown recycled paper (that can also go straight into the recycling bin). There’s 1.5 billion Christmas presents given in the UK on Christmas Day so think of all the excess paper (and trees) you will save.

BUTTON UP: There’s reusable fabric wrapping paper (with buttons so no tape needed) which cuts out the use of paper altogether. Wrag Wrap has a wide selection including stretchy and reversible wrapping options.

STAMP IT OUT: Wooden stamps are the perfect way to add a name tag without adding the string, sellotape and tag itself. Etsy has a wide range of options and if you want to customise your brown paper wrapping try a festive 3D roller stamp to add some colour.

STICK IT: On average 6 million rolls of sellotape will be purchased in the lead up to Christmas. The Plastic Free Shop has and eco paper packing tape that works in exactly the same way, but is more environmentally friendly as its acid free, vegan and made in the UK.