Waste watch group EcoWaste Coalition urges the public not to make the cheerful tradition of gift-giving a sad one for the environment with the thoughtless use and disposal of gift wrappers.
“Gift-giving can generate a lot of discards that, more often than not, go straight to the bin. Instead of keeping them for the next gift-giving, we find gift boxes, wrappers, and accessories habitually tossed into the dump,” lamented Daniel Alejandre, zero waste campaigner for EcoWaste Coalition.
He added, “Gift-giving need not dirty and pollute our environment with more garbage. With a little creativity, we can make our gift-giving tradition less wasteful and less stressful for Mother Earth.”
To conserve resources and reduce gift wrap waste, the EcoWaste Coalition has come up with some suggestions to avoid the purchase and ensuing disposal of gift wrappers and trimmings this merry season.
1. Choose gift items with less packaging or require no wrapping.
2. If wrapping is needed, opt for substitute wrappers such as magazine pages, Sunday comics, potato chip packs, etc.
3. For tying, go for abaca and other native twine, strips of scrap fabric, etc.
4. To protect fragile items from breakage, use crunched or shredded paper in lieu of bubble wrap or foam peanuts.
5. Make use of brown grocery bags, shoe boxes, tin cans, and empty jars as gift receptacles.
6. Upcycle old clothes, fabric scraps, spare scarves, orphaned socks, and old pillows into gift wraps.
7. To embellish recycled gift packs, use unwanted fashion accessories, old cards, magazine cutouts, dried leaves, and twigs, among others
8. Try Furoshiki, the Japanese art of wrapping using vintage scarves or fabric scraps (check the Internet for free tutorials).
9. Put an unwrapped gift into a reusable cloth bag, which can be reused as a shopping bag.
10. Refrain from putting wrapped gifts in plastic bags.
11. Cut and turn old Christmas cards into gift tags.
12. Carefully unwrap gifts and save the wrappers, ribbons, and bows to save for next gift-giving.
13. Another idea is to just ask the recipient to close their eyes for a few seconds and then reveal the gift as it is.
The EcoWaste Coalition had earlier called for a plastic-less celebration of Christmas and New Year so as not to aggravate the country’s ballooning waste production of over 40,000 tons per day.