Whether it’s a holiday gift, a birthday present, a hostess gift or a just-because, present your present in a eco-conscious  wrapping.

Many of the most creative wrappings can be found in your local thrift or resale shop, so it’s doing double- or even triple-good. You’re not wasting newly-produced goods, you’re shopping local, and you are perhaps helping a non-profit shop with its mission.

A repurposed, re-created, or re-imagined gift is good too; but if that doesn’t suit your intended recipient, add a little earth-friendly nudge by bedecking any gift with:

• Wrap it in old maps, sheet music or colorful magazine pages
• Tuck just about any gift in a basket or reusable tin
• Scarves and handkerchiefs make for an extra present around your present… I’ve even seen gifts wrapped in shirts, the arms tied into a perky bow!
• Leftover fabric can be used as-is, or make a quick gift bag from a remnant
• Lightweight wallpaper is my good-to
• Coloring book pages… with a few crayons tucked into the bow, if your recipient is whimsical
• Newspapers (foreign newspapers are great) and Sunday comic pages
• Pictures or advertisements from magazines and catalogs
• A useable cake pan, a wooden box, or a vintage Pyrex bowl
• Tie up kids’ presents with a jump rope; decorate a feminine gift with hair scrunchies

If none of those ideas will please your recipient, look for wrapping paper and cards with post-consumer recycled content, which avoids cutting down any new trees, and closes the recycling loop.

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