With the holiday season in full swing, you may be looking for ways to celebrate more sustainably this year. Luckily, using paper is a simple, effective way to be a force for nature this holiday season – it comes from a plant-based, renewable resource that can be recycled up to seven times!
To help spark some creativity that is both fun and sustainable for the whole family, we created a new guide, "Celebrate the Holidays Sustainably with Paper," that includes a list of tips with easy, practical ways to recycle and reuse paper and paper-based products to make your holidays even more sustainable this year.
Turn a shipping box into a holiday recycling bin. Boxes from online delivery orders can be transformed into their own waste and recycling bins, giving a full life cycle to every paper piece involved in a gift order. Place them strategically around the house to encourage recycling.
Send guests home with paper containers for the holidays. Paper to-go containers (and other products such as paper baking pans and paper cake molds) are all made from a renewable source.
Celebrate reading, writing, puzzling and doodling. Gift versatile and sustainable paper-based gifts, like books, board games, puzzles or journals for friends and family.
Turn cardboard boxes into game boards, a kid's fort and more. Shipping appliance boxes can be a better present than the gifts that come inside when you turn them into hideaways, racing cars or fun, personalized DIY game boards.
Protect gifts and ornaments with a soft cushion of paper. Cushion gifts that are fragile or being shipped by using festive paper-based filler options like tissue paper, crinkle paper or kraft paper.
Upcycle all the way. Turn cardboard into thoughtful, sustainable gifts for friends and loved ones. Gifts can include an advent calendar, pet bed, drawer organizer, a wine holder and more.
DIY decor and gifts. Make seed paper gift tags, paper ornaments or a collage of your homemade greeting cards from leftover gift wrapping to make your holiday feel even more personal and memorable.
Use high-gloss paper to make stylish gift wrap. Repurpose stacks of holiday catalogs and magazines with glossy paper into festive wrapping for gifts. Tape multiple pages together to make a gift stand out.
Personalize gifts with handwritten gift certificates. This is a great replacement to emailing store gift cards or e-greeting cards.
Choosing and recycling paper is not only critical for reducing holiday waste, but it is also a vital component of keeping U.S. forests growing and healthy. More than half the U.S. forestland is owned and managed by about 11 million private forest owners, who supply 90% of the wood to make forest products.
Want more? Check out our video on how to recycle wrapping paper!
TAPPI
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