’Tis the Season to Upcycle: Low-Waste Gift Wrap Ideas
So you love gift wrapping but also want to lower your footprint. Good news! Both are possible. We are constantly inspired by the upcycling ideas we see online and wanted to join in the fun — starting with some sustainable holiday wrap possibilities.
Did you know? Canadians generate more than 540,000 tonnes of waste from wrapping paper and gift bags year after year, according to Zero Waste Canada.
With that in mind, here are our top 5 upcycled gift wrap options using things you’ll probably find around your home. Our criteria: realistic ✓, reusable and/or compostable ✓, beautiful ✓.
Are you ready?
These are a few of our favourite things...
1. Delivery boxes
All those boxes you had things delivered in this past year? If you’ve held onto them, make use of them again! After removing any packaging labels, add some colour with cedar you find on the ground, dried oranges, or any other accoutrements that strike your fancy. Tie it up with string so you don’t need to use tape!
2. Gift bags
There is nothing wrong with regifting tissue paper and a gift bag from last holiday. Hang onto them and you’ll be glad you did when next Christmas rolls around! We keep a bin labelled “Christmas bags” so we don’t confuse them with the bags we use all year round.
3. Package filler
Brown paper packaging tied up with string… Here’s another way you can make great use of packages you’ve received during the year! The brown paper that fills lots of delivery boxes makes for beautiful gift wrap. Tie it up with string or reuse ribbon and add some seasonal flair.
4. Toilet paper rolls
Take two: use the same brown paper packaging to cover a toilet paper roll. Twist the ends and tie with string. This is a perfect way to share small gifts or stocking stuffers!
5. Shopping bags
Life happens – sometimes we forget to bring a reusable bag to the store and leave with an extra shopping bag. The upside is that if you keep it, it will come in handy when the holidays arrive! Add some of the beautiful tissue paper you’ve hung onto and the bag will have a new life.
We hope this jogs your memory for items you might have collected over the past year or two, especially since the pandemic has meant more online shopping for many of us! Have fun sprucing up old packaging — you can even get kiddos involved to decorate and doodle on brown bags, boxes, and paper. And if none of these are available to you this time around, there’s always next year!
