Not all wrapping paper can be recycled.
- Wrapping paper is often dyed, laminated and/or contains non-paper additives such as gold and silver coloured shapes, glitter, plastics etc. which cannot be recycled.
- Some wrapping paper is very thin and contains few good quality fibres for recycling.
- A lot of wrapping paper has sticky tape attached to it which makes it very difficult to recycle.
You can check whether paper is plastic coated or not by scrunching it up. Click on the photo below to find out more!
If it stays scrunched, it’s probably fine to recycle and you can put it in with your paper recycling collection, but if it springs back into shape, it means it is covered in plastic and cannot be recycled.
Try to buy wrapping paper made from recycled materials. Sometimes this isn’t so easy to find in the shops, but this website is helpful: Recycled Paper Supplies sell recycled wrapping paper.
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