Contamination occurs when non-recyclable items are put in your recycling cart. But if you want to do better this holiday season, it is a tradition that could very easily be changed to something better for our Earth.Our community is plagued by recycling contamination. Of course, wrapping paper is only one of many single-use products that Americans consume and throw away, and it's not going to make or break the biosphere by itself. “The Post-It notes… the labels on your envelopes, and tape generally float to the top and they skim them off.” “Generally when the paper gets put into a paper pulper, water is added to it,” Dennings says. She says that, while recycling centers need to minimize contaminants, they can generally take care of tape during processing. The EPA recommends reusing wrappings, such as gift bags and tissue paper - although maybe take note on which relative gave you which gift bag before your re-gift it, if you're worried about that kind of social faux-pas.ĭennings suggests some other options for reusable wrapping including:ĭo you remove the tape from wrapping paper to recycle it?ĭennings says it’s ideal to remove tape, but if you can’t or don’t feel like it, it’s better to recycle it anyways than to throw it away. You can choose recyclable materials to wrap presents Westend61 / Getty Images What are the best alternatives to wrapping paper? And even if you recycle it, the next consumer in line may landfill or burn it, essentially undoing your good deed. It also required additional resources to produce, and generated emissions in production, although less so if it’s recycled.Īccording to Project Drawdown, paper can be recycled 5-7 times before the fibers lose integrity. Of course, recycling is better than just throwing paper away, but unless the paper was 100 percent recycled to begin with, it still likely came from fresh cut trees. “Those would be recyclable, so somebody could actually have the traditional feel of ripping it open… and then being able to recycle it afterwards,” Dennings says. Maps (think of the national park lover in your life).You can also use non-traditional recyclable paper to wrap gifts, perhaps adding a more personal touch a la Marie Kondo's furoshiki methods.ĭennings suggests alternative papers, such as: There are certain wrapping paper brands that advertise 100 percent recycled, or 100 percent recyclable wrapping paper. Some manufacturers are taking action, however. How can you tell if your wrapping paper is recyclable? Although, in some municipalities it might be compostable, so you should check your local sanitation websites for more guidance. Tissue paper, despite its humble appearance, is also not generally recyclable, according to Dennings. “It's a very low grade paper fiber, so it doesn't do well in the recycling process and kind of creates more sludge than it than it's worth,” she says.Īdditionally, holiday wrapping paper often comes with coatings, foils, and glitter - which are definitely not recyclable. “And that actually is not really recyclable.”
![can you recycle wrapping paper can you recycle wrapping paper](https://www.treehugger.com/thmb/ejjCOpwXTaHwJxluldxHZEyIszE=/3000x2000/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/is-wrapping-paper-recyclable-5075370-02c-5c02464a502041c5a789715cd6aabe24.jpg)
“The stuff that you mostly think of has a high clay content and low paper content, which is how it gets all those pretty colors,” Dennings says. We have some bad news: Traditional Christmas and holiday wrapping paper is not usually recyclable. “Each year, Americans use about 4.6 million pounds of wrapping paper and about half of that ends up in the landfill,” Dennings tells Inverse. Kelley Dennings, a campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, puts it bluntly: Which leads to the question: Can we cut the waste from our holiday wrapping paper? Tearing open colorful, glittery parcels is no small part of the holiday experience, but it is also no small part of America's trash pile. This trash is, in part, recycled, but the sheer amount throws an uncomfortable spotlight on long-standing habits. And for America, at least, it holds too true: In the United States in 2018, the latest year figures are available, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates Americans threw out 292.4 million tons of trash. "The mountains of things we throw away are much greater than the things we use." So wrote John Steinbeck in his 1962 novel, Travels With Charley.