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With Christmas right around the corner, the looming concern of festive waste rears its ugly head again. Now is the time for the most prepared of gift-givers to wrap their presents or slip them into gift bags – potentially both.
Keeping gifts so decoratively concealed is a long-standing part of the holiday tradition, but it’s no secret that all these extra layers, on top of the packaging a product may already come in, are an additional burden on our waste streams. Is there a good way to balance the nostalgic visual of a Christmas present with more sustainable consumer behaviours?
From a manufacturer’s standpoint, perhaps the best approach is phase out packaging components that compromise recyclability: laminates, glitter, metallized decorations, etc. High-quality, mono-material wrapping paper is becoming increasingly available, and asking consumers to be conscious of the materials they buy and apply – right down to the amount of Sellotape they use to seal the package – is certainly useful.
Could a case be made for uncoated gift bags? Assuming they remain undamaged when the present is removed, they can theoretically be reused for future gifting – even beyond the confines of Christmas, if its decoration isn’t season-specific. The bags we receive could be passed on for birthdays, weddings, and causes for congratulations throughout the year, all while saving the time, money, and disposal associated with single-use paper.
Yet the success of this approach relies on multiple factors: the quality and durability of the bag in question, and the subsequent user’s environmentalist values. Perhaps a damaged bag could be recycled, assuming it is mono-material and the relevant infrastructure is in place, but what’s to stop the next uncaring consumer from throwing it into the general waste bin?
Perhaps the other option is to consider the materialism of gift-giving itself. Treating our loved ones to a day (or night) out doesn’t discount factors like carbon emissions or fuel consumption, but it might relieve our local recycling centres of some extra strain.
Consumers are unlikely to give up packaged gifts altogether; again, unwrapping is a sentimental part of the experience. As with most questions around sustainable practices, it’s a nuanced interplay between manufacturers making more sustainable options available, and consumers caring to shift their behaviour accordingly.
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