Weddings bring out the gifts - showers, parties, the wedding itself, and hopefully you will be getting things you need and will use, and not 4 toasters.

Wedding gifts often come wrapped in gorgeous shiny papers, but paper especially will be torn off and disposed. Did you know that a lot of gift wrap cannot be recycled due to high metals content? Foil, Mylar, plastics and other materials used either on their own or combined with paper goes directly to the dump.

In the spirit of reusing and reducing, you can encourage your guests to go green by:

1. Choosing recyclable gift wrap: no metals, plastics, etc.
2. Using gift bags. Gift bags can be reused over and over (as long as there are no adhesive labels attached or other damage), especially if you encourage your guests to get neutrally decorated bags that can be used for birthdays, Christmas, etc.
3. Asking your guests to use gift bags made out of recyclable, and recycled, paper
4. Not wrapping gifts at all (not as much fun to receive, but more eco-friendly)
5. Not using foil or plastic bows, ribbon, etc.
6. Asking for experience gifts or donations as gifts, but that’s another post…

Things you can do:

1. Recycle everything you can recycle - paper, bows, ribbon, cardboard, etc.
2. Unwrap everything carefully and save the paper for reuse, especially if it’s not recyclable. Sure, you might be giving Christmas presents with silver-and-blue wedding bells wrapping paper, but hey…
3. Save and reuse gift bags. Four years later, my wife and I are still reusing our wedding gift bags.
4. Reuse bows and ribbon

Ideally, gift bags that can be reused, especially gift bags made out of recyclable paper, are a good solution for keeping unnecessary waste out of landfills. And don’t be afraid to ask your guests to help out.