Remember the feeling you got as a kid when you received a beautifully wrapped present?
The excitement of ripping open the wrapping paper and the anticipation of what would be revealed was sometimes too much to control. And the end result was being surrounded by mountains of ripped paper, sticky tape stuck to the carpet and torn packaging.
For most of us giving a gift gives us the same joy, excitement and, dare we say, giddiness that we experienced receiving a gift when we were kids.
Why we gift, what we gift and who we gift to is very much an individual thing. Our family loves to share gifts with friends and family but since embarking on our journey to use less waste we asked ourselves how can we wrap our gifts sustainably?
The most popular time to gift here in Australia is at Christmas time. A 2017 survey from CARE Australia found that Australians use 150,000 kilometres of wrapping paper over the festive season - enough to wrap the world in paper almost four times!
Add to this the sticky tape, ribbons and gift bags and that’s a lot of single use products going to waste.
The big black garbage bag off to the side on Christmas morning is a pretty common scene - how many garbage bags does your family fill just with wrapping and discarded packaging on Christmas morning? Now consider how many garbage bags more than 20 million Aussies will fill on Christmas morning.
Enter furoshiki.
Furoshiki is the art of Japanese cloth gift wrapping and has been around for over 1200 years. It’s all about reusing fabric to fold around your gift and securing it with a knot, eliminating the the need for single use wrapping paper and sticky tape. We use the furoshiki technique with our Fabraps, allowing us to reuse our fabric gift wrap time and time again.
Using Fabrap to wrap a simple box without hunting for scissors or tape
Fabraps come in three sizes and are super versatile. Sometimes we wrap the entire gift (like books, wine, toys) or other times just part (like a pot plant). You may like to gift the fabrap as part of your gift or ask for it back so you can use it again. (this works best with family!) Wrapping is super quick and easy. No fumbling with scissors or sticky tape! Unwrapping is just as easy.
This method of sustainable gift wrapping is zero waste and will save you money!! So as Christmas approaches, break from tradition and get yourself some beautiful Fabraps to share with your loved ones.
Check out our full range of Fabrap sustainable gift wrapping here.