I enjoy the holiday season, but I cringe at the thought of how much waste each season generates. Of course, America generates a disgusting amount of waste all year, but from Thanksgiving to New Years Day, the average American household amount of waste increases by 25%.
A lot of this waste comes from wrapping paper - but it doesn't have to:
1. Reuse it. Duh.
2. Recycle it. Duh, again. Except tissue paper, and paper with glitter and foil and other fancy stuff cannot be recycled.
3. Do some deco
upage (what a fun word).4. Don't even use traditional wrapping paper - color old newspapers, or get creative with old magazines, and then recycle them like you would normally.
I feel funny about writing this and maybe that's because it all seems like common sense, but it's obviously not - every year the amount of trash in America from gift wrap and shopping bags alone adds up to 4 million tons. That's a fucking lot.
I once wrapped all my gifts in newspaper, but the family complained about the black ink, so I never did it again. But, you've inspired me (or perhaps guilted) so I'll wrap more appropriately this year.
ReplyDeleteThanks for including a link for decoupage. Otherwise, I would have had to Google it.
Yeah, I guess the ink could be a problem - the comics sections are great though!
ReplyDelete