Your gift wrapping paper is trash – literally. Try these 7 sustainable ideas instead

Sure, I could buy another roll of flimsy wrapping paper that tears if I so much as breathe on it. No matter how carefully I line things up, I’m always cutting an inch too short and having to add to a sad pile of scraps.

But most of that wrapping paper heads to a landfill. If gift wrapping paper is foil, metallic or glittery, it can’t be recycled. And even though some wrapping paper is branded as recycled, that doesn’t mean it’s recyclable. Every year, Americans throw out an estimated 2.6bn lbs of wrapping paper – enough to cover 40 football fields.