Wrap your presents plastic free

Wrap your presents plastic free
Christmas is not that far away. Today I am sharing different ways to wrap presents plastic free.


Traditionally wrapping presents requires two things; paper and something to hold it together. Usually this is tape made of plastic. Plastic tape is toxic and is a pain for recycling companies to take off our boxed or paper items. Here are options for plastic free tape.


Try Gummed Paper Tape or Cellulose Plastic-Free Packing Tape.

Or you could do like me and use string, twine or wool. Just make sure it is organic, compostable and ethically made like Shon Twine.

Another idea is to turn old bed sheets or any type of cloth and turn into ribbons to tie presents up with. I even have an odd selection of shoelaces that work too. 

If you want to try wrapping with no tape or twine, Beth Terry has step by step instruction on how to achieve this. 

I don't always wrap presents, but if I do I like to use old newspaper or brown paper to wrap. While newspaper is great as it is being reused there is that chance the ink will rub off onto your present. If you are looking for brown paper choose recycled paper and let your recipient know that they can compost, recycle or even better, reuse it. A great company in Australia is Ecocern. You can use vegetable dyes like carrot or beetroot and create stamps out of potatoes to add patterns to your brown paper. If you accept gift bags keep them and reuse for future gift giving.

Another way to wrap is to try Eco Chici cloth wrapping. This is the perfect guilt free way to wrap presents. It is based on a Japanese cloth wrapping tradition. Eco Chici have a wide range of cloth wraps available and can be reused and reused and reused.

You could even make simple cloth bags too.

If you are looking for a fun way to create gift tags, try upcycling toilet rolls, like I did for my food labels


Do you wrap your presents? or do you prefer to give gifts unwrapped?

12 comments:

  1. So beautiful. I keep forgetting that cellulose isn't plastic. Thank you for the reminder x

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  2. Thanks for the inspiration! I need all the ideas I can get.

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    1. Always happy to help you, though i know you have amazing ideas all the time.

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  3. Anonymous12/08/2014

    excellent tips - I also hadn't thought about cellulose tape. I guess that means cellophane wrap is relatively eco-friendly too, except for the dyes they use and that it can't easily be re-used. I've been giving the kids their gifts in cloth bags for years, & often re-use ribbon on gifts other people have given me.

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    1. Cellophane is eco friendly but your cloth bags are much cooler. Eco cellophane is made from wood pulp and cotton. Cutting down trees for pulp and using the gallons of water needed for cotton is a bit excessive for cellophane wrapping. Cloth bags for the win!

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  4. Love me some plastic free wrapping! I just stocked up on some gummed tape and reused brown paper. Where did you purchase that twine though? And do you know of any local (U.S.A made) twine? I've been looking for twine like that, that doesn't have a plastic outer wrap. Thanks in advance! Cheers, Aubrey

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    1. Hi Aubrey, there is a link in post for the twine. Otherwise i don't know of any in the states that does not come in a plastic wrap (sorry, i am from Australia!). You could ask the folks at LifeWithoutPlastic.com or if you are feeling crafty check out this Handmade Scrap Fabric in the follow link http://mypoppet.com.au/2014/04/scrapbusting-handmade-scrap-fabric-twine.html

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  5. Thank you so much for sharing the love by featuring us in your post :) Merry Eco Christmas! x

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    1. Anytime :) I love the ethos of your company. Merry Eco Christmas to you and your team too x

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  6. Lovely website...but I'm not sure if buying twine from Bangladesh is such a green idea...good to support Bangladeshi industry but...maybe something more local or second hand (strips of old sheet, twisted?) Too many things to weigh up.

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    1. Thanks Pamela. I agree that buying from overseas is not my number one choice and prefer supporting local business but i could not find a local Australian twine supplier that was environmentally friendly or ethical. I did find this great tutorial for making twine out of old material scraps. Click this link to check it out http://mypoppet.com.au/2014/04/scrapbusting-handmade-scrap-fabric-twine.html

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