Holiday Season Challenge - Planet Friendly Wrapping

For this season, I've made a goal for myself to use only planet friendly wrapping. Think reduce, reuse, recycle. Instead of wasting wrapping paper that's been chemically treated and ribbon that is made out materials that won't break down in the landfill, consider other options.

Reduce -
- Instead of buying rolls and rolls of paper just to get different designs, swap old patterns with friends to get variety.
- Use containers or materials that can be reused for other purposes, cloth bags that can be used again, a kitchen towel tied with a ribbon, or a decorative bowl.

Reuse -
- Save decorated bags and reuse them for other presents.
- Packing materials can be reused over and over again. My office gets a lot of gift baskets. Once everything has been eaten, claimed, and picked over, I grab the seltzer (the shredded paper used for filler) before its thrown away to reuse for packing or my own baskets.

Recycle -
- Use the end of newspaper rolls as wrapping paper and let kids decorate it or pull out your crayons and try a doodle or two yourself.
- Use those great paper bags with handles that you get from stores and cover up the logo with a decorative, fabric cut out.

Even if you only make one adjustment in your tradition it will have a big impact not just on the planet, but also on your budget!