Twenty Ways to Wrap Your Presents Without Waste
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 12.13.08
If there is one good thing that can be said about this recession, it is that it is bringing out the creativity in people who are using their hands and their brains instead of their wallets to make or wrap their gifts this year.
London based design headhunter Represent challenged the design community "to develop fresh and eco-friendly solutions to the problem, by designing sustainable and totally tape-free ways to wrap a Christmas gift." They are adding a new one every day, and they include lots of clever ideas that will come in handy this frugal holiday season.
Some are clever and simple;
Some look wasteful, but all that twine can be used again. See them all at Future Present, found at NOTCOT
What to wrap? See our Gift Guide.
Hemp Gift Wrap by Paporganics
It's A Wrap: Clever Packaging from Japan
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Instead of twine...use cloth belts or second-hand belts. You can use them during the year and then during gift season? Use em for that purpose. Then you could use almost anything for the wrapping...newspapers, old books/maps, an old baby blanket...
Another thing I have done is get neat containers like cookie containers and put the real gift inside...
EX: surround the real gift inside with food products like dry popcorn (that he/she could make and eat). Inside could be a certificate of donation to your local library...and a list of movies (you know your friend might like) and that your friend could download from the internet of his/her local library. The example can be as little as $10.00 tops.
For sharing thank you very much good very beautiful work
I'm using reusable shopping bags for my gifts, with re-used tissue paper and/or newspaper for stuffing. The ones at REI are $1 and have 2 sets of handles, which is really nice.
While its not tape free my family has always used old newspaper to wrap gifts. I've even seem imitation 'old newspaper' wrapping paper - what's the point of that? I like the suggestion to reuse the twine but are normal people really going to do that? Most families turn wrapping materials into a big bag of garbage in my experience.
A friend turned soda cans into tinsel this year by spiral cutting the cans. It still a good recyclable after its used (provided its collected and recycled, not trashed with the other wrapping material) and oddly doesn't have sharp edges.
I used the Japanese art of gift wrapping called Furoshiki, to wrap a bunch of crap.. er, gifts for family last year. I wrapped the gifts in old tshirts. Looked pretty cool with the graphics on the front.
Do gifts really need to be wrapped in order to be presented to the recipient?
I save all my wrapping and packaging that I get and see what I come up with for wrapping my own gifts to give. I also use my son's artwork. (Of course, I ask him first.) Each piece is unique. I love the idea of using packaging from other prodiucts (idea) most of what we pay for in products these days is the packaging. I also agree with Anonymous that gifts do not need to be wrapped.
I have a friend whose family hides the gifts in the house (unwrapped) and then they leave a series of clues that lead to the gifts - a treasure hunt if you will. Sounds like a fun way to open gifts AND create more of an element of surprise when you find them.
This year, I'm using old christmas cards to make boxes and then wrapping them with used paper bags. Still using tape though so not entirely environmentally friendly, nevertheless it's a step in the right direction.
thanks