Get Crafty With Wrapping Paper Waste

Walking down our leafy south London street, I’m struck once again by the seasonal sights of the festive period: twinkling fairy lights; the powdery remnants of a snow flurry; the overflowing wheelie bins spewing empty cardboard boxes, gift wrap and cracker stubs out into every front garden.

Such is the delight of the Christmas fall-out. It seldom fails to leave me feeling not only frustrated, but guilty too. Part of me wants to grab all the paper and shove it into our kerbside recycling boxes – are my neighbours blind or just plain ignorant? But the other half can’t believe I – once again – spent £3.99 on glittery wrapping paper instead of getting creative with some ribbon, and being much kinder to the environment in the process.

We Londoners throw away enough wrapping paper each Christmas to stretch around the equator, so campaigners say, not to mention 2,000 tons of glass and 675 tons of foil!

These stats were enough to jerk Boris up from his turkey dinner, who yesterday urged Londoners to recycle: ‘Christmas provides a cracking opportunity (you gotta love him!) to recycle a host of items, rather than overload London’s waste bins,’ he said.

He’s right, of course, but only in part. Even recycling comes with its own costs. A huge amount of energy is consumed breaking down glass, aluminium and paper for recycling, and think of the carbon emissions produced when waste is being transported from homes to plants. Plus, recycling plants are feeling the strain: as the volume of waste increases the demand for recyclable materials is dropping.

I’m not about to start saying we should all turn into our grandmas and save every last scrap of paper in a shoebox to then iron and reuse next year (it’s a fine possibility, of course), but if we stop and think about what is happening to our waste, re-using really is the key to reducing the recycling burden and making London a more eco-friendly city.

The Christmas spirit hasn’t left me just yet, so here are my top tips for re-using this year’s gift wrap and for a greener 2011…

• Shred brightly coloured paper and use as packing in a gift for next year
• Keep the funky prints and use to make homemade gift tags, tree decorations or envelopes
• Store scraps in a box and use for decorating cards and making collages
• Keep the kids happy with some papier-mâché
• Use larger pieces as drawer liners
• Personalise a notice board, or with any extra special wrap, frame and make into wall art
• Make a book cover
• Cut out rings to make chain decorations, or use pinking shears to create paper bunting.

Image by jimmiehomeschoolmom courtesy of Flickr