7+ Zero Waste Gift Wrapping Ideas For Waste-Free Giving

Plastic isn’t the only planetary villain. Paper does its share of environmental damage, too—specifically wrapping paper.

The global wrapping paper industry is valued at around $20.4 billion. This is an enormous amount! While it’s enjoyable to watch your three-year-old niece rip open that crisply-wrapped box, our planet doesn’t quite get the same kick from the magic of unwrapping gifts.

Let’s put present-wrapping into perspective: While it’s difficult to find specific gift wrap details, like other paper-based products, your wrapping paper likely started out as a tree on a paper plantation. Generally speaking, these plantations are threats to local flora and fauna (and thus biodiversity on the whole). This is due to associated shocking levels of deforestation, animal extinction, and illegal logging.

Because tree bark doesn’t exactly fit around the basketball you’re giving to your kid, the tree needs to be transformed into pulp, and then paper. This process can include harmful chemicals like hydroxides, bleaching agents, and concerning metals (chromium, lead, etc.).

Then there’s the waste. Of the millions of pounds of wrapping paper produced a year, roughly half ends up in landfills. While some of this could be recycled or composted, most wrapping paper is not 100% paper and therefore is not recyclable or biodegradable. Anything that contains velvet, plastic, glitter (even if biodegradable), foil (or really any texture at all) cannot be chucked in your recycling or compost bin. Additionally, anything lined with plastic or with tape still stuck to it also will end up in a landfill and may even contaminate a perfectly good batch of recyclables along the way.

Top tip for received gifts: If you’ve received a gift with wrapping, save what you can for reuse and if it’s got no more life in it, do the “scrunch test” to determine if yours can be recycled.