November 11, 2019
Our readers care about the environment, but making sustainable choices isn’t always as straightforward as we’d like. Each week, Swap Shop challenges a HuffPoster to take on a new green habit and write about their journey to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle.I thought I knew about the perils of Christmas wrapping paper. That Britain uses more than 100m rolls of festive wrap every Christmas, most of it headed straight to landfill by Boxing Day. That my penchant for the glittery stuff is probably no better for the environment than dumping a load of plastic straight into the river.
Handmade Wrapping Paper Is A Cute Idea – But Is It Actually Recyclable?
So, this year I’ve decided to go, ahem, cold turkey, and embrace the warm, wholesome glow of brown paper, hand decorated by my two little boys. This was the plan: buy a few rolls of recycled brown wrap, scatter various paints and art materials over a table, make some stamps, and let the kids go mad. Messy, yes, but the end result would have family and friends cooing over their carefully chosen presents and homemade wrapping. And once they’d admired my offspring’s talents, they could it put in the recycling bin, conscious-clear. This is going to win me green points and parenting ones, I thought smugly.
But I had a problem. We thought we were saving the planet. We were wrong.The Christmas wrap production line was already underway when the plan began to unravel. We’d fished out a few hairy old potatoes from a cupboard and fashioned them into stamps. I’d got poster paints and paint sticks (water soluble, must be fine). My five-year-old, with a bit of artistic direction from his younger brother, drew rockets and aliens, and wrote things (mostly insane LOVE YOU!! messages) all over the paper. His friends loved it. I took pictures. 
We were winning. I had even (self-righteously) ordered brown paper sticky tap. I’ll just check a few sites about recycling tips, I thought. Won’t take long.And there it was – ‘brown paper’ listed in the ‘no thanks’ column of the proper, grown up, recycling advice. What about all the parenting and craft blogs and Pinterest posts extolling the virtues of the stuff? I don’t even want to tell you what I read when I Googled ‘can you recycle paper that’s been painted on?’.
So, I decided to press pause on our crafting and track down the experts from WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme). And here’s what I learnt. Related... Is Britain Ready For A Green Christmas? Brown paper is treated separately to other paper. Made from recycled material: often. But recyclable? Well, it depends. Wherever your local recycling services ask you to separate paper and card, brown paper goes in the card pile. And this is why so many sites says ‘no’ to it and it can still end up in landfill.
Next, our paint mistake. Your kids can draw to their hearts’ content. But paint can only account for about 5% of the wrapping, otherwise, it’s much harder to recycle. And if you add glitter, that makes the wrap completely non-recyclable.As for the brown sticky tape, that goes in landfill too – even if it looks good and was also recycled in the first place. WRAP’s Recycle Now, campaign advises using string, raffia, ribbon or any other ties you can reuse instead.
It was time to go back to the drawing board – or kitchen table – this time with some different materials – pencils, crayons, (no one said they weren’t banned), and an Ikea watercolour palette. We used a baby shape-sorter puzzle and posh cookie cutter to trace shapes, then added splodges of colour with some chunky day-glo paint sticks for added brightness. No more than 5% coverage, mind.
The results, as you can see below, are a clear homage to the early Russian avant-garde movement, with a hint of Constructivism. Or something like that.Not only can this special wrapping be recycled, it’s made with love and it’s personalised (a great excuse to make if what you handing over more closely resembles something the cat walked over with wet paws). Oh, and you’ve got the kids to do something productive for half an hour. So now you know.
Making sure the present inside isn’t plastic – now, that’s your next challenge.  More Green Swaps I Now Have A Milkman And I'll Never Look Back Is Bamboo Cutlery All It’s Cut Out To Be? Is It Time You Switched To Charcoal Dental Floss?
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Donald Trump's campaign is in chaos, and his niece says she's energized.Mary Trump, the niece of the former president and a psychologist by trade, has previously been critical of her uncle.On Thursday, she said her uncle's failures are adding up.ALSO READ: A neuroscientist reveals how Trump and Biden's cognitive impairments are different"As the RNC’s fundraising falters and Donald’s campaign spirals into chaos, I am energized!" she said in a Substack post.She then continued:"When Donald dominates the news cycle, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed. Every bad headline has a negative impact. But then I remember something crucial: There’s usually more to the story than meets the eye. I’m determined to cut through the media noise and share with you all the good that happened this week. These are the headlines we need to remain energized and hopeful that the media largely ignored."Mary Trump goes on to highlight President Joe Biden's recent fundraising hauls."President Biden’s $155 million+ war chest has just received another turbo boost, bringing the total of cash on hand to at least $180 million. (By comparison, between his campaign and the RNC, Donald barely has over $50 million — and continues to drain the accounts to cover his absolutely staggering legal expenses)," she wrote. "This is a development that could significantly increase Biden’s ability to influence the narrative in crucial swing states."This, she says, also tells us a lot about voter excitement for Biden."While critics have expressed doubts about the degree to which the Democratic base is fired up as compared to 2020, today’s $25 million fundraiser, raised with donations ranging from $250 to $500,000, should put any doubts to rest — yes, we are absolutely behind President Biden and Vice President Harris and we’re in this fight until the end," she wrote.Read the full post here.
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