Wrap It Up, Eco Style

For many of us, the holidays mean indulgence. I'm as guilty as the next person when it comes to eating more than my share of Christmas desserts, drinking a few holiday cocktails, making impulse purchases and generally letting myself off the hook in the name of a holly jolly Christmas. 

The ugly truth is that indulgence means excess and excess means an abundance of, among other things, waste. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, household waste in the U.S. goes up by a full 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year's. That amounts to—brace yourselves—one million extra tons of waste. Yikes. 

Much of this added waste comes from holiday gift wrapping. Once our gifts are given and received, all our pretty wrapping and bows become trash. Gobs and gobs of it. But with a little creativity and some smart shopping, this waste can be greatly reduced.

Try these simple solutions: 

• Think outside the gift box. Gifts can be wrapped in all sorts of things. Try making the wrapping part of the present. For example, it seems like every store is selling its own reusable bag by now and some of them are quite attractive. Give a gift in one of these and you're not only using green gift wrapping, but you're encouraging the recipient to participate in green shopping as well. 

• When you're out doing your holiday shopping, decline plastic bags and bags for small purchases and turn the larger, sturdier bags you bring home into gift bags. Simply add a decorative element to the bag—trying cutting out images from old holiday cards or designing a holiday greeting on paper—to cover the store's name and logo.

• Get the paper delivered at home? Wrapping gifts in the Funnies is a classic and colorful, not to mention recyclable, alternative. 

• If you're not shopping with reusable grocery bags, choose paper over plastic and then use the bags as wrapping. If you have kids, you can up the design and increase the cuteness factor exponentially by letting them decorate the bags first. 

• Check your den and junk drawers. Old maps, posters and the like make interesting and unique wrapping alternatives. 

If you don't have the time to get creative in terms of wrapping, or crafting has never been your thing, you can still go green. When purchasing wrapping paper, take more than the design into consideration. Look for recycled or recyclable wrapping.

at the Galleria sells rolls of 100 percent recycled wrapping paper by Paper Source. sells its own brand of wrapping paper that is recyclable and printed with water based inks. The important thing here is to pay attention when you're shopping and recycle the paper appropriately when you're done with it, removing tape and any other non-recyclable elements.   

In purchasing wrapping paper, the EPA also recommends staying away from foil and plastic-embossed paper. While attractively shiny, these papers are generally not recyclable and also use more resources in manufacturing. 

This holiday season, challenge yourself. Try to do your giving with minimal environmental impact and maybe even a little eco inspiration as well.