Most wrapping paper can’t be recycled, as it often has foil layers or glitter added (which is plastic). After a few moments of joy it ends up in the bin. Happily there are eco friendly wrapping paper swaps we can make which are just as fun and attractive. Many of them won’t cost you anything and they are more considerate to the planet.

Note: This blog post contains affiliate links and I was sent some Wrag Wrap to review/ giveaway.

Eco friendly wrapping paper alternatives course and the #CutTheWrap Challenge

Last year I set the challenge to not use any single use wrapping paper over the festive season at all. I think it is relevant every year! Find out why and pledge to take the challenge here: Cut The Wrap Challenge. When you sign up to the challenge, you can then join my newly formed Zero Waste Christmas Facebook Group. It’s a group to share ideas over keeping waste low over Christmas.

This blog post can help you with the challenge. However there are so many ways to wrap up gifts beautifully and with the environment in mind, that I am setting up a course on the subject! It will be fun, filled with tutorials for different gift wrapping ideas and is going live on 23rd November. It will be ready in plenty of time for you to wrap up your gifts in time for the festive season. Find out more here to pre book your place and get an early bird discount: Sustainable Gift Wrapping Course

Eco friendly alternatives to wrapping paper

Once you have your sustainable gifts sorted, these eco friendly ways of wrapping them will give them the perfect finish! You could also add upcycled gift tags to them to take it one step futher

The fabric eco friendly wrapping paper alternative

One of my favourite techniques for wrapping gifts in fabric is Furoshiki. It’s a Japanese wrapping style that is elegant and involves zero waste! It is a bit like origami for gift wrapping!

There loads of ways to wrap up your gifts in fabric aside from Furoshiki. You can wrap up gifts with fabric and string. Or put the gifts in fabric gift bags or sacks. If you can sew, these gift bags made out of festive pyjamas are a fun upcycling project and look great.

Another way of wrapping up gifts in fabric is to use Wrag Wrap. I first found out about it at a local Zero Waste Christmas market. Wrag wrap is reusuable and is made of recycled plastic. It comes in a variety of beautiful colours and patterns and looks really attractive. Wrag wrap crackles when you use it, so that it sounds a bit like paper folding as some people said they miss that with fabric wrap. It isn’t cheap and is a bit fiddly to wrap up with, but it is fun and looks great! Tip: I found it a bit tricky to wrap up soft items in this, but boxes or books work well.

Use items from your recycling

There are lots of things that you would usually put in your recycling that makes fun gift wrap. For example colourful pages from old magazines or kids artwork. Check out some more ideas here: Saved from the recycling – beautiful ways to wrap gifts

The no wrap method

You don’t have to wrap up a gift to make it exciting. Obviously you could just hand the person a gift unpackaged. But if you want to make it more fun, hide the gifts around your home and set up a treasure hunt. If you need help with this, I’ve written a handy list of Treasure Hunt Clues for around the house.

As you can see there are lots of ways to wrap up gifts whilst bearing the environment in mind. So come and sign up for the Cut the Wrap Challenge and why not treat yourself and/or a friend to my sustainable gift wrap course

For more ideas about how to save money and the environment at Christmas time, check out this post: How to have a luxurious eco friendly Christmas on a budget

Wrag Wrap and Keep This Cracker Giveaway

Next week I will be reviewing reusuable Christmas crackers by Keep This Cracker on the blog and I am giving some away alongside this Wrag Wrap bundle. They are the perfect combination to help you on your way to an eco -friendly and zero waste Christmas.

You can enter the giveaway below. None of the options are compulsory, but you must choose at least one option to enter. The more you do the more chances you have to win. If you purchase access to the Sustainable Gift Wrapping course you will get 5 entries to the competition. If you sign up to the mailing list and the Cut The Wrap challenge, you will get 3 entries and you will get one entry per relevant Instagram follow. The competition closes at midnight on the 3rd December – full terms and conditions here. Good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway