Guide to sustainable wrapping paper and greeting cards
Whether it’s a festively wrapped gift or a thoughtful card, giving to the people you care about during the holidays is a joyful experience. These rituals help us stay connected.
At the same time, there’s guilt that can come with a lot of wrapping and cards ending up crumpled in the garbage, bound for the landfill. Let’s look at the waste reality of gift wrap and greeting cards, and explore a few ways to keep your impact low without sacrificing your enjoyment of the season.
In this guide, you’ll learn:
How much wrapping paper ends up in the landfill every year
How to identify recyclable wrapping paper and greeting cards
What to do with non-recyclable paper products you may have on hand
You have options aside from recyclable paper, too
By the way, we’ll link to some brands. We’ve made picks based on our own research and aren’t being compensated for any business we send their way. We’re just trying to help you find waste-less solutions easily.
How much waste is created from wrapping paper and greeting cards?
Gift wrap and cards really pile up. Earth 911 estimates that 4.6 million pounds of wrapping paper are produced annually and 2.3 million end up in landfills. Many of the 1.3 billion holiday cards Americans send every year have the same fate.
Many, many, many bows and ribbons end up in the landfill, too. The glue in traditional bows makes them non-recyclable and ribbons are a major problem for recycling machinery, getting caught similarly to hair in a vacuum cleaner.
Is wrapping paper recyclable? What about greeting cards?
Lots of wrapping paper and cards are recyclable—any that are solely made of paper, including printed paper. Recycling experts say that tape is okay, too, so you can fill your curbside bin without wrestling to remove it.
While it’s not difficult to find recyclable options, plenty of wrapping paper and greeting cards are non-recyclable because they have materials added that can’t be recycled with paper. The main culprits are glitter, metallic accents, flocking, and glossy coatings.
These non-recyclable products often take a long route to the landfill after being wishcycled—put in the recycling bin by someone who’s hopeful they’ll somehow be recycled.
Instead, when non-recyclable materials are included in recycling, they cause problems for recycling facilities, like the time it takes to sort them out and pauses in operations when bits get caught in the machinery.
There’s something worse that happens when non-recyclable materials are wishcycled, too: contamination.
Just one “wrong” thing can ruin a bale of recyclable materials. A single glittery card spotted in a mass of materials can cause the giant batch to be rejected from a recycling facility, sending the whole lot to the landfill.
For this reason, if you’re not sure your wrapping is recyclable, the least harmful choice is to put it in the garbage.
So, try to avoid wishcycling and instead choose sustainable solutions to waste less holiday paper. Here are our top tips.
What you can do to send less to the landfill
Choose recyclable options
There’s an easy trick to tell if wrapping paper is recyclable: scrunch it. If it stays in a ball, it’s likely all paper and can go in your curbside bin. This test is a handy way to check wrapping paper you’ve already bought. If you find that you have non-recyclable paper, encourage the recipients to reuse it. It’s also a useful test when you receive a gift and need to figure out how to dispose of the paper.
When you’re shopping for new wrapping paper, you probably won’t be able to use the scrunch trick, but you can still look for wrapping paper without glitter, metallics, and flocking. Anything very glossy is likely coated with non-recyclable plastic, too.
For a sure bet, look to brands that prioritize wasting less. Newsprint paper, like the fun styles from Wrappily, can be backyard composted or recycled. Wrappily also offers composted and biodegradable ribbon and gift tags. Waterleaf Paper Co makes 100% dissolvable wrapping paper.
Use what you have
Your home is likely hiding lots of things you can use to create festive packages, like thick paper bags, dust bags that come with shoe or bag purchases, magazines, jars, and tins. Also consider cutting up worn t-shirts, towels, and scarves—any fabric or paper will do!
Another idea: thrift for things you can use as gift wrap. Keep your eye out for old maps, fancy kerchiefs, and even clothes with festive patterns.
Try reusable wrapping
When you give a gift in a reusable item, like a tote bag or fun dish towel, the wrapping is a bonus gift!
Options to buy reusable wrapping “paper” have popped up in recent years. Shiki Wrap and Tokki both use recycled plastic to create their festive options. Shiki makes paper-like reversible wrapping and Tokki offers gift bags—plus, they eliminate physical greeting cards in favor of digital versions you create and access with a QR code. Brands like Wrappr and Rapt use beautiful fabrics (some reclaimed and scrap) inspired by Japanese Furoshiki.
Reusable wrapping is a great way to spread education about gifting waste, too. Recipients are likely to ask about the cool product you found and you can tell them why you love it.
Explore modern ecards
Ecards avoid both emissions and physical waste. We already mentioned Tokki’s options, which combine a reusable physical tag with a virtual card. Paperless Post offers oodles of animated cards—you’re sure to find a style you love for every occasion. If you love to design, check out Canva to make your own ecards from scratch or from a ready-made template.
Choose sustainable paper cards
If you want to send physical cards to the people on your mind, remember that material sourcing matters. Keep an eye out for paper that’s already been recycled or that’s certified for sustainable sourcing. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certifies products to validate that they use sustainably sourced materials.
Look for brands that take a mindful stance, too. Paper Culture plants a tree with every purchase. Plus, their cards are made of 100% recycled paper and they manufacture with carbon neutrality. They offer photo cards, as does indie artist marketplace Minted, who uses sustainable packaging and offers lots of cards made with recycled paper. Artifact Uprising is another mindful card source—their paper is FSC-certified recycled and they offset the electricity used in production with windmill electricity.
Plantable cards that really grow into herbs or flowers have gained popularity in recent years. Brands like Cute Root, The Seed Card Company, and Small Victories offer festive collections.
Start a reuse habit
Now that you know how much wrapping, cards, ribbons, and bows tend to add up in the landfill, think about creating a simple system to save non-recyclable materials you receive so you can use them again.
While bows aren’t usually recyclable, they’re very easy to reuse. A bit of tape is a simple replacement for used-up adhesive. And if every household reused two feet of ribbon, it would wrap around the Earth.
Wrapping it up (ha!)
The important thing to remember about sustainable wrapping paper and greeting cards is that you have options—and it can be fun to explore your personal take on wasting less while still showering your loved ones. From getting crafty with thrifted items to simply shopping online with a different lens, you’re sure to land on a waste-less solution that works for you.
