Mini-Tip: Ethically Wrapping Large Presents

This year I was faced with a little dilemma involving a big gift. Looking at this large present, I couldn't fathom wasting so much wrapping paper on such a large gift - not to mention how difficult it is to paper wrap cube-shaped packages! I tried searching the stores for a large "Santa Sack" but nothing was wide enough to fit this box. I could make my own "Santa Sack" to use for years to come, but my timetable did not allow for that kind of project this year. 

Last night I had a sudden epiphany! I could use the Furoshiki style of fabric wrapping, but super-sized with a flannel sheet to fit this large box. The best part? This whole process probably took less than 2 minutes. 

I watched this video for a quick tutorial and then applied the practice to my larger sheet. 

Shown here is a twin flat sheet folded in half. The box is lined up so that the flat sides are facing the four corners of the sheet. Generally, Furoshiki is done with a square piece of fabric, but since my box is a little taller than a cube, it worked out that my sheet wasn't perfectly square. 

Take one corner and pull it tightly over the top of the box. 

Take the opposite corner and pull it tightly over the top of the box. Fold under the pointed tip to create a straight seam. 

Take the remaining two corners and pull them tightly over the box. Tie them in the middle to secure your wrapping. You'll notice that some excess fabric will be sticking out at your edges. Simply tuck these in to create a smooth edge. 

And that's it! The quickest wrapping job you'll ever do! No cutting, no tape, and no waste! You can dress up the package with a pine sprig or some reusable ribbon if you'd like, but other than that, you're done! You didn't waste money using half a roll of wrapping paper on one gift, and since you'll take your sheet back home after gift-giving, you've once again eliminated the burden on your recipient to dispose of the wrapping. You could also use a blanket for this wrapping method and let the recipient keep the blanket as a bonus gift!

Furoshiki is also great for small-scale presents. Try wrapping small gifts in scarves, fabric napkins, or fabric store remnants for an Eco-Friendly alternative to gift wrap. This link has a great diagram of different wrapping techniques, including a very chic-looking way to wrap bottles!

DIY Pillow Boxes

Let's be honest for a second: You're sitting on the toilet and you finish a roll of toilet paper. You grab a new roll and toss the empty tube in the trash. I know, it's convenient. You don't want to run an errand to your recycling bin after leaving the bathroom. However, it is important to consider how seemingly small choices can have a big impact. Millions of pounds of toilet paper tubes are sent to landfills every year even though they are an easily recycled product (source.) To make recycling less of a hassle, think about placing a small recycling bin next to the trash bin in your bathroom. That way you can collect toilet paper tubes, soap boxes, and other recyclable products to carry in bulk to your outdoor bin. Making one trip every so often feels like less of an effort than several trips multiple times a week. 

Around Thanksgiving time, I asked my family of three to set aside their empty toilet paper tubes. In about a month we went through almost 15 rolls of toilet paper which calculates to an average of 180 rolls per year. That's a lot of cardboard that should at least be recycled. But, in the spirit of good, better, best, let's talk about one way to reuse a toilet paper tube before sending it to be recycled. (You can Google "Toilet paper roll crafts" for lots of project ideas.)

Christmas is just a couple days away, but you'll probably be meeting with friends over the next few weeks to catch up and exchange gifts. Maybe just a little something like a handful of candies, a sweet piece of jewelry, or a gift certificate to your favorite local spot. Pillow boxes are a great way to dress up a little gift, but you don't need to buy any - make your own with cardboard tubes around the house! This is also a great project for using up your empty wrapping paper rolls once all the paper is gone. Just cut the tube down to your preferred length before starting. 

Pillow boxes are pretty simple to make. Just use your thumb to bend down the edge of the tube. Start in the middle and and spread out to the sides to make a smooth curve. Repeat on the other half to close off the end. Fill your tube with your gift and then fold off the other side to complete your pillow box. 

Now it's time to decorate!

L.L. Bean recently sent us some catalogs for the holidays so I took the theme of reusing another step further. I pulled out some pages that I liked and cut them into strips to wrap around my pillow boxes. I secured them with a small piece of tape on the back. This is also a great opportunity to use up those narrow strips of wrapping paper too small to wrap anything else. If you want to stay paper free, you can decorate your tube with a paint marker before folding it. 

Last but not least: ribbons! Americans throw out 38,000 miles of ribbon each year (source) so it is important to save and reuse ribbons. Here I reused some yarn from the packaging of a handcrafted pair of earrings. You might remember from my last post that I said to avoid curling ribbon since it is made of plastic. However, my co-workers gave me a few balloons for my birthday so I saved the ribbon from the balloons to reuse rather than throwing it out. I will admit that the white ribbon is new because I bought it for another project, but since it is a fabric ribbon it can be reused. If you think that your friends and family won't reuse certain pieces of packaging, don't be afraid to speak up and ask to collect reusable items. It's as simple as saying, "I'll take that ribbon if you're going to throw it away."

Unfortunately, toilet paper tube waste is really just the result of a much bigger problem - the overuse of toilet paper in America.

Americans use 8 million tons of toilet paper a year. It takes 37 gallons of water to make one roll of toilet paper (source) and at least 27,000 trees (globally) are cut down each day just for the production of toilet paper (source.) In many other countries, the popular use of a bidet reduces the need for toilet paper. One Zero Waste blogger mentioned that her toilet paper usage decreased by 60% with the addition of an inexpensive bidet attachment in her bathroom. If you're not ready to make the leap to a bidet, there are many other ways to reduce your toilet paper footprint. Most toilet paper is made from virgin pulp. America's annual toilet paper demand uses 15 million trees, over 473 billion gallons of water, 253 thousand tons of chlorine for bleaching, and 17.3 terawatts of electricity, not to mention the additional resources for distribution (source.) If every US household replaced just one roll of virgin toilet paper with 100% post consumer recycled toilet paper for a year, it would save 423,900 trees (source.) Check out this blog post for a list of recycled and tree-free toilet paper options. 

Mini-Tip: Gifting T-shirts Wrapping-Free

Tonight I met a friend for dinner and gifted him a T-shirt as an early Christmas present. The T-shirt already had a cool all-over pattern, so it made for a pretty presentation all on its own. By simply rolling a T-shirt you can hide the main graphic and your recipient will have fun unrolling it and revealing the design! One of the best things about wrapping-free gifts? You eliminate the burden on your recipient to dispose of the wrapping.

Here's How I Rolled My T-Shirt:

1. Lay T-shirt flat with the front facing upwards.

2. Fold sleeves over front of shirt. 

3. Fold shirt in half from shoulder to shoulder so that the front graphic is hidden. 

4. Starting at the collar, tightly roll the shirt to make a neat cylinder shape.

5. Tie shirt with some twine, ribbon, or yarn. You can add a pine sprig or other small item as a decorative topper. Unfortunately the candy cane I used is not zero waste because of the plastic wrapping - there's always room for improvement!

For this shirt, I used a piece of yarn that I had saved from the packaging of a pair of earrings I bought from a small business artist. Americans throw out 38,000 miles of ribbon each year - that's enough to tie a bow around the Earth! (source.) Keep a stash of reusable ribbon, yarn, etc. from presents that you receive so that you don't have to buy new every year. And forget those 6-inch ribbon curls - curling ribbon is made from polypropylene (plastic.) (source)

Americans spend $7 billion on wrapping paper (trash) each year (source)*. If you're struggling with the idea of not wrapping your presents, just remember that going green usually also saves you some green. Remember my good, better, best philosophy from my last post? If you're not ready to give up gift wrap completely, try to think of some creative ideas to reduce your wrapping paper consumption. Giving multiple shirts to someone? Skip the individually wrapped shirt boxes and roll them all into one box or gift bag. T-shirts themselves can be used as creative wrapping for other gifts!

* Please do not use wrapping paper as a fire starter - it can cause chimney fires and the dyes let off toxic chemicals (source.)

Reducing Holiday Waste: Christmas Cards

I’ve always felt a sense of responsibility to the environment.

Image from: Penn Waste

As a child, I took home my classmates’ tests in a big stack at the end of a unit to recycle because I couldn’t stand to see so much paper in the trash. Now, I am even more aware of our throw-away society, I have tried to increase my efforts to limit my contribution to our global waste. Ceramics is a very permanent craft. Raw clay can be dried out, watered down, and used again and again, but once it is fired, it’s in the world forever. The power of this permanence inspires me to be environmentally conscious in my life and business. All of my shipping materials are reused from local Rochester businesses and I find alternative uses for my flawed pottery.

Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, Americans produce 25% more waste equaling 25 million tons of extra trash.

When it comes to the holiday season, it’s easy to be swept up in the magic of entertaining and gift-giving, but I can’t help but to think about the pressure to spend and the mass consumption that comes with it. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, Americans produce 25% more waste equaling 25 million tons of extra trash (source.) Just think about all the novelty gifts, gift wrap, gift bags, tissue paper, greeting cards, and decorations that you buy during the last two months of the year.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t give gifts and spread joy to your friends and family. However, a little extra thought can go a long way to reduce your holiday waste. Perhaps you’ve heard about the Zero Waste movement. At first, the idea of zero waste can seem pretty intimidating, especially with the popular visual of a mason jar containing all of a person’s trash for the year. But, it’s important to remember that zero waste isn’t a strict rule, it’s a goal to help aim your daily practices.

REFUSE
REDUCE
REUSE
RECYCLE
ROT

You’ve probably grown up with the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Zero waste taught me that there are two others: Refuse and Rot (composting) which bookend the original three R’s. I look at these five steps on a scale of “good, better, and best.” Refusing wasteful practices and reducing your waste are the “best” practices you can employ. Reusing falls under the “better” category, and recycling and rotting are “good” when you can’t achieve the others.

In this mini-blog series for the holidays, I want to give you some “good, better, best” options for minimizing your extra holiday waste. For this first post, I’d like to start with some alternatives for sending holiday cards.

The billions of Christmas cards that are sent each year could fill a ten-story football field (source.) In 2011 I did some market research for a greeting card business. The Greeting Card Association no longer had this information on their website, but in my 2011 research I found that they conducted a national survey in which almost a third of respondents said that they keep cards “forever.” What that really means is that over 66% of people dispose of the cards they receive! I tend not to send cards for any occasion because there is such a high chance that they are going straight into the garbage. The one card I do remember sending this year was, of course, from a small business. If you picture the lifespan of a product from purchase to landfill, greeting cards have a pretty direct line from shelf to trash. Check out these tips for increasing the life cycle of the cards you give and receive:

Good: (Recycle)

• Buy cards made from recycled paper and post-consumer waste

• Avoid buying cards with foiled accents and glitter because they cannot be recycled

• Recycle cards that you receive instead of throwing them out

Better: (Reuse)

• Even if a card will ultimately be recycled, expand its lifecycle by reusing it first

  • The cover of the card is usually blank on its backside. Cut off the cover and write on the back to send a holiday postcard. Keep the original note sent to you, use it as scrap paper, or recycle it.

  • Put the card in a frame for seasonal decor. Keep your favorite cards to swap out throughout the year.

  • Cut out the main image and hole punch the top to make a paper ornament

  • Cut the cover into a few rectangles or other shapes to make gift tags

  • Do you have a large back-stock of greeting cards? Use several cards to create a DIY paper wreath

Best: (Refuse and Reduce)

• Only send cards worth sending

  • I have a friend whom is the master of card giving. He writes lengthy, meaningful notes that are impossible to throw away - I cherish my collection. A generic card from the store with just your signature probably won’t be saved by the recipient.

• If you have a tradition of sending family photos and a yearly newsletter, consider pruning your list of recipients.

  • Send an email newsletter when you can and save the hard copies for family and friends without email. Post your family photo on social media for all to enjoy and save the prints for those who truly want them and will keep them beyond when next year’s replacement arrives.

  • Eliminate the need for a yearly newsletter by making an effort to stay connected through email, social media, and phone calls all year long.

• Feel like you need a holiday card to keep a gift card in?

  • Create even less waste by sending an e-gift card

  • Stay tuned for some future tips on alternative wrapping for gift cards

• Not only does reducing your holiday cards help save paper, you also save money on all those high printing fees and pricey seasonal cards!

Luckily, paper is one of the most successful recycling efforts out there. Paper recycling is easily accessible and more paper is recycled than is sent to the landfill (source.) Of course, there is always room for improvement. Each year, 4.5 million tons of office paper is thrown away in the United States. The average American uses two pine trees worth of paper a year (650 lbs.) (source.) By recycling paper, you can help save 33% of the energy needed to make new paper (source.) Reusing paper before recycling it ultimately extends the life of that paper, and reducing your paper use will have the greatest impact of all.

In the remaining two weeks before Christmas, I hope to post a few other holiday waste tips. Next, I’ll be tackling some alternatives to wrapping paper and paper gift bags.