That's a Wrap! The Benefits of Recycling Gift Wrap

As we approach the Christmas gift giving season, I came across an intriguing display in our local grocery store... bows made out of paper rather than plastic! They come in a variety of fetching colours, and the reason they jumped out at me was that they looked "dull" compared to the normal shiny gift bows.

You know the bows I'm talking about... these ones... that look shiny and picture perfect. They come in bags of a dozen or two dozen and we've been using them since... well... since as long as I can remember.

Although... given that my Mom learned frugality during wartime/post-war shortages... we always reused our bows. We'd stick a bit of folded scotch-tape underneath the bow and tape it to the gift. On Christmas, we'd all carefully pull the bows off so they, and the paper, could be reused again.

But those shiny plastic bows are not recyclable. They are made out of some plastic/paper composite and... pretty as they are, they aren't good for the environment. Nor is most of the gift wrap - the shiny, sparkly paper that is also a composite... if it doesn't hold it's shape when it's scrunched into a ball... it's not pure paper.

And somehow... over the years, I lost the habit of saving wrapping paper. We no longer slide a paring knife under the tape to open the gift carefully. No... it's a rip-tear fest and the paper gets tossed in the garbage. Which goes against my eco-heart.

Now... we haven't bought "new" gift wrap for years. We just go to the thrift store and buy rolls there. We aren't fancy about our wrapping paper. Although... back in my 30s... I read a minimalism book which had some interesting suggestions. But white wrapping paper (new) and then use different coloured ribbons and bows to add some pizz-azz to the gift. The white paper and ribbons could be used for birthdays, bridal showers, Christmas... any occasion really. And I did that for a while... until it became too hard to find plain white paper.

I know there are much simpler, more eco-friendly gift wrap ideas out there... use fabric... use newspaper... use brown paper... The temptation, always, I think... is to now go out and buy a roll of brown paper, and some fancy doodads to tie onto the gift... or make it fancy somehow with extras fancy string or whatever.

The key though, I believe... is to use what you have at hand. Use brown paper bags from the grocery store. Use old bits of string. It doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't have to be store-bought...

In the meantime... we will continue to use up the rolls of gift wrap that we have and maybe... this Christmas... I can get us back in the habit of opening gifts carefully... so that we can save the paper for another day, another year.

To Write or Not to Write... Christmas Cards

I am a writer and letter writer from way back. I used to send dozens of  Christmas cards every November/December. And yet, over the years, I have grown ambivalent about Christmas cards.

I love the excitement of finding something in the our mailbox, other than flyers and promo cards. I love seeing who the envelope is from and then opening the envelope.

I am then usually disappointed to find a mostly blank card with just the printed felicitations and then a signature or two. 

Meh. That seems like a lot of effort and money to just send a generic greeting and a signature. Yes, we can put the card up on our card holder and revel in the feeling that people still care about us and love us. But then what?

Recycling Christmas Cards

At the end of the season we don't keep the cards. We toss them in recycling except... we then need to spend some time deciding if the card is recyclable.

If it has any of the following, it is NOT recyclable...

• glitter - sooooo bad for the environment
• sparkles - same thing
• singing/talking battery-powered - battery and plastic housing not recyclable
• shiny foil bits - like the lettering
• ribbons - gotta rip those off and toss them
• jewels and other doodads - rip those off too
• plastic coating - just wrong
• photographic cards - ooohhh... of the family sending the card... those need to be kept!

And let's not even talk about the envelopes... all of the PSAs below make it challenging to recycle paper and can actually contaminate the paper recycling process. PSAs are "pressure sensitive adhesives" and they make the envelopes soooo pretty...

• self-stick address labels
• festive stickers (I'm guilty of this... I LOVE plastering stickers all over the envelope)
• plain old tape - because sometimes the envelope flap glue is not great...

So I sit there every year and assess each Christmas card and their envelopes. I find that, by far, the vast majority are not recyclable. At least not the front cover of the card. I will often tear of the back part and recycle that and then toss the front part in the trash. My rule of thumb for deciding if something is plastic-y is... can I tear the card easily? If not, then it has some plastic baked into it. Paper-anything should tear easily.

But tossing the front of the card just seems... wrong. Such a waste. All the energy that went into making and transporting and buying and sending that card and then... it is used once and just... thrown out?

Reusing Christmas Cards

Would it be horribly horrid if we reused Christmas Cards? If we just cut off the back part and then wrote a new felicitation on the inner side of the front cover? So a Christmas post card? Or is that chintzy and cheap? Or thrifty and eco-friendly? Of course, if people wrote longer greetings on the inside cover... that would preclude this idea!

There was a day when I had grand schemes to reuse Christmas cards (the front cover) in new and creative ways. Like...

• Cut them into a circle and use them as a mason jar topper if we gift garden preserves
• Glue the front of an old card to a piece of folded card stock to make a new card
• Write a recipe on the reverse and include when you send packages, parcels or gifts
• Cut them into gift tags (that way you don't have to buy gift tags)

But those dreams of being a creative wizard, worthy of Pinterest fame have evaporated in the reality of life. Time to let those dreams of future me go! Although... some of those ideas seem really easy... like the jar toppers...

But maybe physical Christmas Cards are going the way of the dinosaur? Maybe it's more 123GreetingCards.com? Digital Christmas Cards? Although I really don't like those either. First, they usually end up in my spam folder and I'm never quite sure if they are legit... so I might err on the side of caution and just delete them, sight unseen.

So fear not... physical Christmas cards are still a "thing"... you just have to walk into any store to see boxes and boxes of fresh, crisp, shiny, glitzy Christmas cards.

During Covid, Christmas card sending went up over 144%! That's a LOT of Christmas cards! I can't say we were part of that. We kind of gave up on writing Christmas cards a few years back. It just seemed soooo... pointless and capitalist...

Capitalist Cards

Go out and buy a new box of cards? Nope. We gave up on that years ago. When we do send cards, we go to the thrift store and grab whatever we can find there. Are they stylish? Probably not. But they are cheap. They are second-hand. And they are mostly simple cards made of paper. (Pssst... we do the same for birthday cards... no way are we paying $7 for a new card!)

Then we have to figure out who we are sending the cards to and decide which type of card to send to each person. Some folks really appreciate the religious cards (Hi, Mom!) and some don't appreciate a hint of religiosity in their mailbox.

Then we get to write their addresses on the envelope, which causes us to wonder... have they moved this past year? Is this even the right address? Heck... do we even have a physical mailing address for them? We just have a street address but no postal code so need to spend time on Canada Post figuring that out.

Then it's off to the post office to buy stamps and mail the cards. Have you seen the cost of postage??? And the line-ups at the post office? Ugh! (I sound a bit Grinchy right now... don't I?)

We'd go to all the effort and send out 40 cards, and would receive less than half of that in return. Sometimes only 10. Meh... thinking of the money (purchase price, stamps) and the environmental impact (unrecyclable cards) and the time (writing the cards and then deciding if they are recyclable)... it just seems a bit pointless. An empty gesture signifying what... cultural norms? The "done" thing? But whyyyyy???? 

Family Newsletters

On the other hand... some cards include a family news sheet of the past year. We LOVE reading those!! That brings smiles and joy and laughter and connection.

We generally send ours via email though. Guess we are cheap. We don't want to print 40 of those on the colour printer (or at Staples) and have to do the whole Christmas card thing...

Those family newsletters are also much harder to let go!

We've fallen off the Christmas newsletter bandwagon the last few years. Will this be the year that we get back on it? Time will tell... But look for it in your email Inbox in early December... maybe mid-December... Maybe this blog will jump-start our newsletter writing.

I do have to say... I still tend to send physical Christmas cards to our elderly relatives, the ones who don't have ready access to email. I'll write some news inside the cards as well... none of this "Christmas card with just a signature"... I really don't see the point of those... But maybe that's just me???

An Alternative

Maybe we could try this instead... Think of the elderly, the single, the grieving in your network. Maybe it's that old lady in the little house down the street. The one that you see toddling along on her daily walk to the corner store. What if you figured out her postal address and sent her a card... with a personal greeting.

Maybe it's the single person up the block who keeps their yard so neat and tidy and has done a tonne of improvements over the last year. Send a card thanking them for all that they have done to beautify the neighbourhood.

For years, I drove by a house on the way to my local Starbucks. I always thought it was a very well-maintained house. Such a neat garden and well-maintained. I never saw anyone there, just the one car in the carport. I thought about writing an anonymous post card just thanking them for their presence. And then I saw the occasional second car in the driveway and I thought... "they are getting home support" I should really write that card." I never did.

Too late to send that card...

And then this past year, there was a For-Sale sign on the property. Now it's sold and... did the people move into a care home? Did they die? I don't know. But I never sent that card and that sits with me.

So... this year... we'll be trading writing "signature cards" for sending cards to... other folks. Call it Random Acts of Christmas Card Kindness...

Your Recycle Bin is Easily Contaminated

Recycling... we all try so hard, but it is a huge challenge. I sometimes tell guests that they need a PhD in recycling to figure out our system. Some things can be placed in the blue bin, but some have to go to the depot. All cans and plastic tubs need to be washed to avoid food contaminating the paper in the bin. Pizza boxes... which look like they could go in the blue bin, really need to go in the green bin because of all the green stains on the cardboard. And on it goes.

We have a large basket in the cupboard under the sink that collects all of our recyclables. Once a week, I take it out to the blue bin and do a final once-over. There is always something that has snuck into the recyclables that doesn't belong there... a glass bottle, a pill bubble pack (mix of foil and plastic - not recylable) or a kleenex box with the plastic bit.

Our city is cracking down on blue bin contamination. They are sending scouts out ahead of the trucks now and checking blue bins. And woe to the household that has banned items in their blue bin. They might get a warning... and then after a few of those... something more serious might happen. Not sure what that is yet... but I'm sure we'll hear about it. Friends of ours have had two warnings already. Now... they recently moved into a house from an apartment so they are new to the whole blue bin thing. But they are getting a crash course!

Anyhow... I thought I would go over some of the obvious things that contaminate our paper recylables... A really good rule of thumb is this... if it's made of two different components (paper and plastic) it is NOT recyclable.

Tissue Boxes

This is an easy one. See that plastic window... it's gotta come out. And it doesn't take much to just reach into the box and tease the plastic away from the box. Depending on your jurisdiction, that plastic might even by recyclable... but with the filmy plastic stuff... not as part of the paper stuff.

I always flatten out the kleenex boxes as well, otherwise our basket under the kitchen sink gets full super fast.

It just takes a moment or two to tear out the plastic window and then flatten the box.

Pasta Boxes

And then we have pasta boxes... the ones with the little plastic windows so that you can see what type of pasta is in the box.

Not sure why we need that little plastic window... a picture of the pasta would be perfectly fine too! In fact... in the UK... in 2020... Barilla got rid of the little plastic window! They realized they didn't need it...

That was 3 years ago... not sure why that little innovation hasn't trickled across the Atlantic but... our pasta boxes still have plastic windows.

And guesss what... yep, you need to take the little plastic window out when you toss the box into the blue bin. And these ones are much harder to get out than the kleenex box. I often have to rip out the entire cardboard bit that the window is stuck to. So annoying. Time to ban those little plastic windows!

Christmas Cards

But they're paper, right? They should be easily recyclable? Well... it depends on what they are made of. Remember... things made of two different materials... especially plastic-y things... generally not recyclable. 

I hate to tell you this but there is no paper in the world that looks like shine-y gold or silver. All of that stuff is some sort of foil... probably nylon foil. And glitter/sparkles are definitely not paper.

Sooo if your Christmas card is pure, boring paper with no glitz or glam... it's probably recyclable. But if it's got sparkles or shiny bits... nope. I tend to rip the front off of these cards and toss that bit while recycling the back bit.

Store Receipts

Back in the day... we used to get short little paper receipts from stores, like tiny ones. One of the thrift stores in town still has a receipt like that. And it's actually "paper".

But most stores use thermo-paper and those receipts are super long with all sorts of information on them. But here's the thing... they are all coated (mostly) with BPA (Bisphenol A), a nasty industrial chemical that is super bad for human health. If you did put your receipts into the blue bin... the BPA would contaminate the rest of the paper... and might end up in tissues. We don't want that. Soooo... store receipts are NOT recyclable.

But what do you do with them? Throw them in the trash. If you're concerned about info on the receipts... then shred them and toss them.

Envelope Windows

I remember reading once that you could leave those little plastic address windows on envelopes when you recycle them. That still seems to be the case, probably because those little windows aren't super attached to the paper. It is relatively easy to heat the paper and have the adhesive dissolve. But if you want to go for it... tear out those plastic windows!

See... the rule of thumb about not recycling two different materials doesn't apply everywhere! Sigh.

Padded Envelopes

Some padded envelopes are obvious... they are plastic on the outside and have plastic padding (bubble wrap). Other padded envelopes are less obvious. They look like paper on the outside and inside... but have a layer of plastic bubble wrap hidden from view. You'll know they have plastic guts though because they are light... and make a plastic sound when you squish them and bend them. The other option is a padded envelope that is stuffed with paper products. They are usually a bit heavier and... for lack of a better word... feel lumpy. There are also some new ones that have a layer of honey-comb cardboard or corrugated cardboard as padding. Those are obviously great!

For recycling... pure plastic padded envelopes... can be recycled in our jurisdiction if they go into the flexible plastic stream and get dropped off a the depot. Pure paper padded envelopes can go into the blue bin. The mixed material envelope... with paper and bubble wrap... not recyclable. Goes in the garbage.

So annoying... Not sure why we need padded envelopes that can't be recycled... Do they "look" nicer than one-material envelopes?

Take-out Cups

These are a bane on the landscape. Timmies coffee cups. McDonald's drink cups. Starbucks latte cups. 7-11 slurpie cups. So many convenience cups. All of them lined with a thin film of plastic. What to do with them? Blue bin? Green bin?

They actually go into the blue bin, at least in our jurisdiction. As long as they are rinsed so they don't contaminate everything else in the blue bin.

Now that is all "in theory". I found this link which laid it all out quite nicely. The coffee cups are sorted out and then baled up and sent to a paper mill. There, they are shredded and then sent into a "hydropulper" which separates the different layers. Great! In theory...

The Cost of Contaminated Recycling

There was a recent news article on CBC which uncovered huge problems with our recycling system. You see... India receives tonnes of paper recyclables from Canada, which is not ideal to start with (huge carbon footprint shipping all that stuff overseas). But on top of that... the "pure paper" bales are contaminated with all sorts of things - like coffee cups and milk cartons and other plastics. 

And that's not the only time this has happened... Malaysia... the Philippines... All of them are miffed at Canada for sending contaminated containers containing "recyclables" which end up containing basically... garbage. Things like soiled adult diapers. That's just wrong.

Now, we aren't responsible for what gets baled and sent to India. Are we? Well, we aren't making up the bales but... what we put in our blue bin is the starting point. It all starts with us. Small steps... remember.