In the words of Guardian’s Hilary Osborne, one of the biggest sources of waste each Christmas is wrapping paper, with more than 8,000 tonnes being used each year - the equivalent of approximately 50,000 trees.

Wrapping presents is part of the festive ritual and it certainly wouldn’t be as much fun if you could see what you’d got as soon as you looked under the tree. But instead of picking up three jumbo rolls of paper on the high street, this year consider some greener ways to conceal your gifts.

But what might those options be? How about 100% recycled wrapping paper. There’s also recycled brown paper. And even recyclable aluminum foil. Further to that, reusing things like ribbons, bows, tissue paper and gift bags is always nice. Though the greenest idea is to do without unnecessary wrapping altogether.

As for cards, you can reduce your footprint by using cards made with recycled paper, or those decorated with vegetable-based inks. And next year, use the cards you just received as gift tags!

Sure, this is nothing new, but it’s still great stuff.

Photo Credit: Unicef.