Dec 7 2010
You have your holiday gift list. You've checked it twice. You found the bargains as the shopping season begins.
But how will you wrap all those presents? During the holiday season, consumers are transitioning away from antiquated single-use paper wrap to green alternatives like reusable fabric gift bags from emerging companies such as GratitudeGiftBags.com.
"This new trend in cloth wrapping is the ultimate gift - to the Earth," said Gratitude Gift Bags owner Barbara Nelson.
As consumers make their annual gift-wrap purchases, they are considering the enormous environmental impact of paper wrapping. Most paper gift wrap ends up in landfills. Studies show that between Thanksgiving and New Year's output of trash increases by an astonishing 25%. Each year an extra four million tons of trash goes into the landfill from paper gift-wrap.
"If every American family wrapped just three presents in reused materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields," reports the Carnegie Mellon Green Practices Initiative.
Most gift-givers don't think about the numerous square miles of trees eliminated; the massive use of water and chemicals during the processing of the pulp; the energy-wasting heating, drying, flattening process; followed by even more chemicals applied to dye, flock, or print patterns onto the fragile paper.
Environmentally friendly options to paper gift wrap are quickly emerging. Gift givers are covering presents using: the comics section of the newspaper, canvas tote bags, old t-shirts, colorful magazine pages, fun fabrics, Japanese Furoshiki wrapping cloths, fanciful pillowcases, and even recycled paper gift wrap from holidays past. The rapidly growing trend is switching from one-use paper gift wrap to reusable fabric gift bags.
GratitudeGiftBags.com, an online business based in Solana Beach, California, offers consumers this new alternative. This company sells high-quality fabric bags made in the United States. These bags come in a multitude of stylish patterns and sizes. Consumers are reporting that fabric gift bags are much easier and quicker to use than paper, saving time and eliminating the need for scissors, tape, tissue, and ribbon.
After the unnecessary deforestation, wasted energy, and processing in toxic chemicals, what our communities end up with each holiday season is billions of pounds of one-use gift wrap that will be ripped off in a holiday morning frenzy, thrown in the trash, and headed for the landfills. Emerging, innovative companies such as GratitudeGiftBags.com provide compelling new options. Now, get out there and shop, but remember to pass on the paper wrap.