Undoing the wrap

Last week, a neighborhood listserve that I am on had a long thread on alternatives to wrapping paper. The list members had many cool suggestions for wrapping gifts in such as old maps, architectural drawings, trendy newspaper sections and fabric. Lots of enthusiasm was expressed for kicking the resource-dependent wrapping-paper-habit. 

Here is an exhaustive collection of 36 alternatives to wrapping paper to get one started from Wisebread --- and by no means do they mean a gift needs to look shabby. Above is a cloth wrapping guide put out by the Japanese government aimed at reducing waste. Once you see the possibilities, there is so much paper and fabric that could be re-purposed, it seems silly to spend money on unrecyclable and single-use wrapping paper.

This takes my thoughts to school fundraisers that sell wrapping paper. During gift wrap season, our household will easily get requests from five or six different schools. That is a lot of wrapping paper being pushed for a demand that maybe isn't there. I have been declining wrap for a few years now, instead writing a check to the school directly (which then doubles my contribution on my sale). Another MidPoint Green post should ponder school fundraising, but for now this site appears to have potential --- fabric gift bags and recycled gift papers. At least paper purchased here would contain recycled content. Do you have experiences with the Greenraising.com site?

--- Midpoint Green http://midpointgreen.blogspot.com

Stephanie Hankerson