Greening Austin Daily

Tips on Saving Holiday Wrapping Paper for Next Year

28th December, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

The Huffington Post has gathered several ideas on way to reuse your holiday wrapping paper, including ironing paper on a low setting (courtesy of Martha Stewart), shredding paper to make decorative padding for fragile items you’re shipping (courtesy of Instructables), and making decorative bows out of strips of paper (also Instructables).  You can also save your holiday cards for next year and make gift tags out of them (Martha) or try to make small gift boxes out of them( craftypod).

I also found this earth 911 post about why you shouldn’t use wrapping paper to begin with, which would have been helpful if I had posted it before Christmas, but it still is good to keep in mind for birthday presents, Valentine’s Day presents, etc.  The highlight is this:

It can often be difficult to find a location to recycle your wrapping paper because of the materials are typically non-recyclable.

• Wrapping paper is often dyed and laminated.
• It can also contain non-paper additives, such as gold and silver coloring, glitter and plastics.
• It can be very thin and contain few good quality fibers for recycling.
• It usually has tape on it from the gift wrapping.

Thus, the article encourages you to reuse materials (for example, gift bags, newspaper, tissue paper that items are shipped or packaged in)  when getting your presents ready.