In the U.S., annual trash from gift-wrap and shopping bags totals 4 million tons. If every American family wrapped just 3 presents in re-used materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields (Source: Use Less Stuff).
Fortunately, wrapping paper may provide endless play opportunities for children and festive decorating ideas for your home.
- Flip it over and use the white backside as a large coloring sheet for children to doodle and color on. My sons loved having such a large canvas to work with and quickly made their own wrapping paper designs. I was tempted to save and use the new side for next year's gifts.
- Put scraps through a shredder or cut it up to make fun confetti and strips for stuffing in future packages and gift baskets. Or to line bird cages and cat beds.
- When packing up your holiday decorations this year, use leftover paper to wrap delicate ornaments. Bonus, your hands won't get all inky like with newspapers.
- Use the cardboard tube for kindling and logs + 17 more uses for the cardboard tubes.
- Recycle it! Always look for 100% recyclable paper, I found some great colorful ones at Target for this year's presents.
- Upcycled Wrapping Paper Ornaments - fun kid activity from This West Coast Mommy.
- Make a Christmas Wreath with circular tubes from the paper OR make a framed Holiday Paper Tree.
Its really cool one to consider, I'm very happy to see this kind of post.
ReplyDeleteWe always try to recycle our gift wrap if possible! Great ideas, though!
ReplyDelete