SINGAPORE - As Christmas nears and shoppers flock to malls to buy gifts for their loved ones, the National Environment Agency (NEA) has a poignant reminder to share: Try to change the world a gift at a time, by wrapping your presents in an eco-friendly manner.
In a Facebook post on Saturday (Dec 16), NEA urged the public to opt for eco-friendly gift wrap alternatives by reusing paper bags, newspaper or fabric.
The Straits Times takes a look at four different ways of doing so.
1. Use paper bags
You can do this simply by reusing old paper bags you have lying around the home, or you can buy a pack of brown paper bags from discount store Daiso for cheap.
Place your item in the bag and fold the top down. Then, use a hole puncher to make a hole in the top.
Place a ribbon through the hole and tie a bow. You can even decorate the bag or dress it up with colours or lace.
2. Use newspaper
If you have old newspapers at home, you can reuse them for wrapping. A simple flourish such as brightly coloured ribbon will give it that festive finish.
You can use red and green ribbons to add a Christmas flair.
Watch the video below for some gift wrapping tutorials using newspaper.
3. Use magazines
If you prefer glossier paper, you can use old magazines. The pages are generally smaller than broadsheets, so these can be used for smaller gifts such as accessories.
This video shows you how.
If you have small items to wrap, you can also use magazine pages to make small bags to put them in. Here's how.
You can also use the coloured paper to make bows to go on top of your gift.
4. Use fabric
There are several ways to wrap gifts with fabric. One way is to use old scarves as outlined in the video below.
You can also use traditional Japanese Furoshiki techniques to wrap gifts with cloth.
There are many different types of Furoshiki techniques that you can use.
If you have some old shirts in your cupboard, you can use them as wrapping material. Simply take a pair of sharp scissors and cut off the top part of the shirt, beginning from under the arms, so that you have a rectangular piece of fabric to work with.
Alternatively, you can use long-sleeved shirts and wrap the gift using a Furoshiki technique as shown in this video.
