To boycott wrapping paper this Christmas ?

[MostlyAmbridgeandcoffee]

It’s terrible for the environment and completely pointless ! Who’s with me? Old newspaper or pretty reusable cloth instead? My little one turned 1 this weekend and the cardboard and wrapping paper rubbish at the end of it all made me feel a bit ill! Does anyone do this already and have any tips ?

The Japanese have been using furoshiki wrapping cloth for centuries. I'm going to try material scraps this year.

Family friends have large gift bags assigned to the recipient –on Christmas Day everyone drops the presents in. The bags get reused every year, I think a few have been going for a couple of decades!

I'm now looking at second hand silk scarves on local selling sites. Loads on there for £1 each. I think this is great as they won't come in packaging, they will be reused by me and then hopefully reused by the recipient either to be worn as a scarf or used as wrapping. Win win.

I brought some lovely vintage jewellery on ebay a few years ago. They came wrapped in pretty fabrics. I thought it was a lovely idea. I ordered from then a few times. I used the fabrics in craft projects.

I do this with presents we give (brown paper or gift bags that can be reused) I'd be interested to know how people deal with wrapping you receive from other people? We have quite a large family and the amount of unrecyclable wrapping and packaging that comes into the house is obscene.

I found my son hates wrapping paper so this year I brought large Christmas themed boxes with lids for his gifts.
We also have a large Christmas sack might get a few smaller ones has well. Boxes and sacks can be used again for quite a few years.

My daughter wants her presents wrapped she said the fun part is ripping off the wrapping paper. Thankfully her presents are small so won't need much paper.

Hi had crossed my mind now I’m pregnant with DD. My mum used to wrap presents and spread plastic glitter everywhere.. everywhere! We’d be finding it all year round.

My plan is to take that and make it more environmentally friendly. I plan to use recyclable packaging paper, and use biodegrade glitter or dried petals to make it pretty.

I don’t think buying a load of cloth is the answer. Probably made in a sweat shop somewhere. Cotton is problematic, so are synthetic (plastic) fabrics.

I’m going to buy recyclable (cheap) wrapping paper.

I do use new wrapping paper but I also save wrapping paper in good condition and gift bags to use again.

I have been using brown parcel paper and buy huge rolls of 3" wide ribbon from the local fabric shop. Paper is recycled and ribbon reused another year. Looks pretty and I don't feel bad about it.

Oh, and the gift tags are the fronts of previous years Christmas cards, sometimes cut into smaller shapes.

I collect up all the drawings my son has done and left all over the house and use those. Also for birthdays.

I've used brownpaper for the previous two years, but this year I have cut up DS' old bedding that I don't like using any more because he has frequent nosebleeds and there are lots of blood stains near the top. The rest of the fabric fine, though! The idea of throwing it away felt terrible, so I cut it up and will use it as wrapping paper this year.

We use brown paper or gift bags that can be reused. We have some in the cupboard ready to do the rounds again. My in-laws like a hamper every year and we've been refilling the same wicker one for years now. They always give it to us for a refill in November.

You don't need to buy fabric. That would be a waste. I use old clothes or curtains. I cut off buttons and zips to reuse for craft projects. The rest can be put in the textile recycling bin once they have been used.

Just to add I accidentally overordered wedding ribbon 10 years ago and ended up with 25m of sage green ribbon spare. Ive been gradually using the ribbon over the years on presents (still got about 10m left ). Always makes me smile when I get a present back with the same ribbon on as I know its doing the rounds within our family and friends.

We use gift bags, reuse old gift bags, wrap things in re-used tissue paper and put them in (re-used) boxes, use decorated brown paper and ikea paper. I've used fabric a few times.

I use brown paper or the rolls of white ikea drawing paper for large gifts.
Smaller gifts I wrap in tin foil. You don’t need sellotape and they are super fast to wrap.
I decorate with brown string and print the paper according to that years theme.

so a quick google has told me that as long as the paper isn't glittery or metallic, ie as long as it's just paper, it can be recycled.

So I'm not sure what the gain is in using brown paper. Surely better to use a recyclable paper (which most will be) with a design on it, than buy brown paper AND ribbon or whatever you're going to decorate it with.

You know that by not buying wrapping paper you aren't saving or even helping the environment right? The effect caused by wrapping paper has already happened.

The paper has already been made, so the energy used to create them has occurred so pollution has been created. Plus any paper not used will no doubt just go to landfill. At least at home once used you can put it in your recycling bin and it stands a chance of being recycled.

I will be buying it as usual. As will the rest of the UK and I imagine most of this thread. Don't spend your life worrying about using wrapping paper. The world is screwed regardless and you not using wrapping paper will not stop this. You need to stop manufacturers creating it. You can't do that. Enjoy life, don't worry about these things, especially at Christmas.

Blueoasis do you know anything about how paper is made? I've been to a paper mill in Sweden, they owned their own sustainable forest and I'm pretty sure it was a good set up.

Shops produce what people buy, do you understand supply and demand blue?

I use brown paper and you can buy paper ribbons - I did it last year for all presents and no-one complained & I got more compliments :)

Iris1654 yeah iris, but you're going to have what tops 100 people on here say they won't buy it? Versus the 66 million people of the UK? Youre up against too many people. The suppliers will keep supplying, because the majority want the wrapping paper.

CassianAndor some will be sustainable. I doubt the majority are. The majority are out to make a lot of money and just don't care about sustainability. That's who you need to target, not the consumer. You're up against too many people to change their minds at consumer level.

Blue I'm not worrying about it, but have thought about it from time to time when I've wrapped up presents and then, sometimes only hours later, that same paper has gone in the bin. It just seems such a waste of everything - money, time, resources etc..

Our planet is in terrible trouble. You think fuck it, just don’t bother...really?

Lost for pleasant words for you.