Zero Waste Gift Wrapping Ideas – 10 Sustainable Gift Wrap Ideas UK

So when you’re trying to have a zero waste Christmas, zero waste gift wrapping ideas are quite important. When I was looking for sustainable gift wrap last year a few years ago I realised that it wasn’t always easy to find and most of what’s available in High street shops in the UK is quite wasteful and not very sustainable.

When you think of conventional wrapping paper which is sometimes covered in glitter, foil and coated in plastic, it means that it’s difficult to recycle and very wasteful as it’s single use as well.

In more recent years the nieces and nephews in my family have preferred to receive money so this is definitely better in some ways because I don’t need to wrap anything then. However, if you want some ideas for where to buy sustainable gifts for Christmas, check out my blog post.

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Conventional Wrapping Paper

I recently attended a sustainable gift wrapping event online and they had some scary statistics to share from the UK.

• 3 Million tonnes of extra waste is produced at Christmas which is 30% more than the rest of the year.
• The equivalent of 108 Million rolls of wrapping paper are thrown away at Christmas – This is enough to wrap around the world 9 times!
• Every year £42 million worth of presents end of in landfill! Source GWP Group

Bear this in mind when you’re getting ready for Christmas this year.

It might seem strange to be talking about ordinary wrapping paper in a sustainable gift wrap article, however my Mum has previously bought wrapping paper from second-hand stores and car boot sales in the UK and if you’re on a budget you might find that this is the best option for you.

Although ordinary wrapping paper can be recycled here in the UK it has been said that it can cause issues at the paper mills if the paper has a lot of foil on it, glitter or even a plastic coating.

This BBC article states that the best way to check is to scrunch the paper up and if it stays like a ball then it can probably be recycled.

Another thing to consider with conventional wrapping paper is that it can’t be recycled if it’s covered with cellotape so if you’re using conventional wrapping paper make sure that you remove all of the cellotape first of all or use paper tape instead.

If you decide to use conventional wrapping paper just try and avoid the ones with glitter or fancy bits on so that it won’t end up in landfill.

Brown Paper & String

In the last 5 years I have only used brown paper and string to wrap all presents, whether that’s for birthdays or sustainable gift wrap for Christmas. I have to confess that I’m generally awful at wrapping gifts, I think I just don’t have the patience to make every side perfect.. That-being-said brown paper and string does a great job at hiding poor wrapping skills!

Although brown paper is still single use I find it works great for gifts where you aren’t sure if they would reuse a fabric wrap or it’s a child’s birthday party etc.

What’s great about brown paper is if you use string you know that the paper can be easily recycled afterwards. If I’m using this sustainable gift wrap for an unusual shaped present, I just use a bit of paper tape to secure the edges as well as the string.

You can buy plain brown paper relatively cheap online and from craft/art supply shops. If you’re fairly new to sustainable gift wrapping, I think this is a great place to start.

Reuse Paper

Another awesome zero waste gift wrapping idea is to reuse paper to wrap gifts. You could save any paper from gifts that have been given to you. Or if you have children you could use their artwork to wrap any smaller gifts, this is particularly good if it has paint or anything on that meant you couldn’t recycle it.

Another great way to wrap presents for a zero waste Christmas is to use old newspapers. This is one of my favourite ideas because I love how it makes them look vintage.

If you don’t have newspapers or any other type of paper lying around, you could use anything you receive in the mail such as advertisement magazines (junk mail) or leaflets. My Mum gave me all gifts for the children wrapped in junk mail one year and I thought it was such a fabulous idea.

Fabric Wraps

Using fabric wraps is the ultimate zero waste gift wrapping idea, let’s be honest fabric wrapped gifts look so beautiful. Even my awful wrapping looks great with fabric! These beautiful fabric wraps pictured below are available to buy from a shop on Etsy, called Battle Green Box at £5.95 free delivery in the UK (they also have a discount for multiple purchases).

The wraps are organic cotton and they’re made through a project called re-wrap in India which helps improve the lives of farmers and artisans. They also send their wraps via the sea to reduce the carbon footprint from delivery. Battle Green Box are also donating £1 for every wrap bought to Freshfields which is a non-profit charity which helps abandoned and sick farm and domestic animals.

I understand that fabric wrapped gifts are not going to be suitable for all recipients. A friend of mine was concerned that if she’d paid the extra for fabric wrapped gifts that they would end up in the bin because whoever received it would not know to reuse it. I understand her concerns, in that situation I would only use brown paper and save the fabric wraps for people who you know would appreciate it and reuse.

Old Fabric

Another great way to wrap sustainably is to use old fabric, whether that’s using some old clothes to wrap presents or using some other type of fabric that you might have already at home.

I think scarves and pashminas are usually a good size to wrap larger presents, what’s lovely about these as that they can be reused as well by the recipient. I have managed to build quite a collection of scarves over the years and I have my favourites so many of them don’t get used. I definitely need to declutter my collection and reuse them for gifts a lot more in the future.

Bonus Tip

A tip that I remember from the recent sustainable gift wrapping event that I attended, was to add a piece of card at the bottom of your fabric if you have something that might shift within the fabric. The card works as a sort of base and makes it easier to wrap and hold together.

Gift Sacks

In the UK it’s become quite popular in recent years to do a Christmas eve ‘box’ for your children with new pyjamas, hot chocolate and colouring books etc. With my son I’ve just used the below reusable Christmas sack to fill it with some things for Christmas eve. My Mum gave me this one a few years ago and I use it every year on Christmas eve.

This year I have had to be super frugal so it won’t contain much just some hand-me-down pyjamas and vegan chocolate. That-being-said this year doing a No Buy year has really made me think about all of the unnecessary purchases that people make for children. My children have so many toys and craft supplies that they really don’t need anything else!

There’s no reason why you can’t use this for Christmas day gifts as well. In my experience children don’t really care so much about how a gift is wrapped. Certainly not as much as adults do. I’m sure a gift sack would work great for any younger children if you have multiple gifts to give them and bonus is that they’ll be much less mess around the house this way as well!

Glass Jars

Glass jars are another great zero waste gift wrapping idea, they work especially well if you are giving something handmade like chocolates, chutney or pickles. It’s the ultimate zero waste gift that won’t cost you much money to make either. You can reuse any jars that you already have, tie some string around the top to decorate and it only costs you the ingredients to make.

Previously I’ve made a sugar scrub for a friend of mine as a gift and the below chocolates were part of a present I gave to a friend earlier on in the year.

Gift Bags

I haven’t bought a gift bag in many years but I do have a stack of gift bags that I save and reuse whenever a situation arises that I have to quickly sort out a gift for someone. Most of my family save and reuse gift bags but I don’t know how common this is in other families.

If you try and save any that you receive throughout the year I bet that you’ll find that you can reuse them quite easily. It’s a hassle free method of wrapping a gift and at least you can prevent them from ending up in landfill.

Tote Bags

If you have a collection of tote bags that you’re not using, you can also just put your gift in a cotton tote bag. I love this sustainable gift wrapping idea because again it’s hassle free and it also means that the other person can reuse the bag themselves. There’s less likely to be any confusion around whether they can reuse it with a tote bag as well because it’s fairly obvious that it’s a reusable bag as soon as you look at it.

Extras

So when it comes to sustainable gift wrapping ideas there are also other things to consider. Normally people would use cellotape, ribbon, gift tags or even those stick on ribbons to finish the gift. However these aren’t the best things to use for a zero waste Christmas.

I use a combination of string and paper tape to wrap presents. Normally for an ordinary rectangular shaped box for example, string would be enough to secure the present. I have some recycled cotton string pictured below and I did have a roll of jute string which I used for wrapping lunches at my son’s birthday party in September. I saved all of the string to reuse but it’s obviously no longer in a roll.

In previous years when my son has received Christmas cards from class friends I also turn them into gift tags for the next year. During the pandemic Christmas cards were not allowed, which I have to admit I preferred because I don’t like the waste of Christmas cards.

If you have ribbon lying around that you’re not using you can of course use ribbon if you prefer.

I really like the decorative paper tape as well as you can use that to finish off any gifts that have been wrapped in brown paper but it doesn’t affect their recyclability.

Sometimes you might need to think outside the box when wrapping gifts for a zero waste Christmas. Just remember that reusable items are always better environmentally but something that can be recycled is the next best thing. Use what you have first and foremost so if you have wrapping paper left over from previous years, make sure you use that first.

I’ve also written a post recently about a brand created by Simon Constantine who was a perfumer for Lush for many years. Their Discover set would make a great sustainable gift. You can read the And Fragrance product review here.

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