Part of the charm of holiday gift-giving is in the wrapping. But when I searched for eco-friendly paper and ribbon near my apartment, located in the center of Washington, DC, I couldn’t find any. It made no sense to give eco-friendly gifts wrapped with new materials.

I believe that small changes can have a big impact. One staggering statistic I found: $5 billion dollars worth of gift wrap winds up in landfills each year. And if every family in the US wrapped three gifts a year in something reused or repurposed, 45,000 football fields of paper would be saved!

I don’t have much space to store personal packing supplies and I save only ribbons and bows from gifts I receive and from neighbors who don’t want to keep theirs. Driven by frustration and the need for an alternative to the wasteful store-bought selections (many of which had boring designs anyway), I devised 8 different ways to stylishly wrap gifts using newspaper and–with the help of my friends–made a 6-minute video of my findings.

This tip has been provided by Reena Kazmann, and you can find all of her videos on the ecoartware Channel on YouTube.