This trick will tell you if your wrapping paper is recyclable - YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Sign in Welcome!Log into your account Forgot your password? Password recovery Recover your password Search Sign in Welcome! Log into your account Forgot your password? Get help Password recovery Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Home Life This two-second trick will tell you if your wrapping paper is recyclable By You Magazine - December 21, 2021 Christmas, unfortunately, tends to come with a lot of waste – from leftover food to excess packaging on presents and, of course, the mountain of wrapping paper that builds up in the middle of the room as everyone rips into their gifts. Getty Images In fact, did you know that the UK uses 227,000 miles of wrapping paper each year? According to sustainable packaging company GWP, that’s approximately four rolls of wrapping paper per household, and 83 square km of the stuff ends up in landfill. While you can go around the room scooping up ribbons and bows to reuse again next year, torn wrapping paper can’t really be reused and quite often it can’t be recycled either, due to the use of plastic coating, foil and glitter (hence why it ends up in the bin). Thankfully, strides have been made in this area, with several retailers including John Lewis, Waitrose and Morrisons committing to banning glitter on the wrapping paper they sell in their stores. Getty Images However, even with the glitter removed, some wrapping paper still isn’t actually recyclable, but it can be hard to tell just by looking at it. Sustainable creative organisation Hubbub has shared a nifty little trick that will help you figure out what wrapping paper can go in the recycling in seconds. Dubbed the ‘scrunch test’, all you have to do is scrunch up the wrapping paper and see if it stays in a ball. If it does – great! This paper can go in the recycling. If it unravels, that means it can’t be recycled. Getty Images Obviously you can’t test this in the shop before you buy it, but this trick will help you sort through the torn up recyclable wrapping paper on Christmas Day. Alternatively, you could ditch the wrapping paper altogether and use old fabric scraps (Hubbub has a great tutorial on this here) or buy reusable fabric gift wrapping from somewhere like The Fabric Wrapping Co. We also spoke to Camille Wilkinson, the ‘eco crafting maven’ and author of Gift Wrap Green, about her eco-friendly gift wrapping tips. RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR Everything we know about The Crown season 5 Aldi s exercise equipment is on sale with up to 50% off The best Halloween events for 2022 across the UK Popular in Life The You magazine team reveal their New Year s resolutions December 31, 2021 Susannah Taylor The TLC tools your body will love January 23, 2022 How to stop living in fear February 6, 2022 Susannah Taylor My pick of the fittest leggings February 27, 2022 Women’ s Prize for Fiction 2022 winner announced June 17, 2022 These BBC dramas are returning for a second series June 30, 2022 Susannah Taylor gives the lowdown on nature s little helper – CBD April 17, 2022 The baby names that are banned across the world April 27, 2022 The Queen has released her own emojis May 26, 2022 Sally Brompton horoscopes 27th June-3rd July 2022 June 26, 2022 Popular CategoriesFood2704Life2496Fashion2240Beauty1738Celebrity1261Interiors684 Sign up for YOUMail Thanks for subscribing Please check your email to confirm (If you don't see the email, check the spam box) Fashion Beauty Celebrity Life Food Privacy & Cookies T&C Copyright 2022 - YOU Magazine. All Rights Reserved