This time of year, it seems there are many parties to attend. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are just a month apart, and then add the baby showers, weddings and anniversary celebrations to the mix, and there is certainly a lot of gift giving. And with that, of course, comes a good amount of waste with the packaging, wrapping paper and tissue paper.
Luckily, a good amount of packaging as well as wrapping paper is recyclable these days, depending on your community. As far as wrapping paper is concerned, the kind that is sparkly or coated is not recyclable, but everything else can be tossed into your recycling bin.
But one thing that municipalities don’t seem to recycle is tissue paper. Unfortunately, most tissue paper has been embedded with other materials during the production process. Additionally, tissue paper is not actually made of a lot of fibers and because they are short and thin, water can often deteriorate them, making it an unprofitable material for many paper mills.
Luckily, there are several ways that we can recycle tissue paper at home and keep it from the landfill. Since tissue paper is usually just lining boxes it’s often in great condition for reuse. If you like to save space and flatten your boxes, you can keep the tissue paper in a shopping bag with your scraps of wrapping paper and ribbons.
If you don’t like to keep clutter in a closet, one thing tissue paper is good for is mulch. You can crush it into balls and throw it into your compost pile, or wet it and spread it around your garden (or even your houseplants). One of tissue paper’s key properties is absorbency, and the paper will deteriorate over time into the soil.
Another idea: Try making things out of your used tissue paper such as decorations, which are perfect for showers and parties. Over at Chateau & Bungalow, recycled tissue paper is used for pom-poms for a child’s birthday party to not only add color and texture, but also to hide ceiling fans. Martha Stewart has some great ideas as well, such as Mexican paper decorations to hang in a window, tissue paper eggs for Easter and a tissue paper garland.
In this season of celebrations, unwrap carefully and think twice before throwing that tissue paper in the trash. Not only does it almost always have other uses, but saving it also saves you money. There are tons of other ideas out there, too. Have you recycled tissue paper in a creative way? Let us know!
But one thing that municipalities don’t seem to recycle is tissue paper. Unfortunately, most tissue paper has been embedded with other materials during the production process. Additionally, tissue paper is not actually made of a lot of fibers and because they are short and thin, water can often deteriorate them, making it an unprofitable material for many paper mills.
Luckily, there are several ways that we can recycle tissue paper at home and keep it from the landfill. Since tissue paper is usually just lining boxes it’s often in great condition for reuse. If you like to save space and flatten your boxes, you can keep the tissue paper in a shopping bag with your scraps of wrapping paper and ribbons.
If you don’t like to keep clutter in a closet, one thing tissue paper is good for is mulch. You can crush it into balls and throw it into your compost pile, or wet it and spread it around your garden (or even your houseplants). One of tissue paper’s key properties is absorbency, and the paper will deteriorate over time into the soil.
Another idea: Try making things out of your used tissue paper such as decorations, which are perfect for showers and parties. Over at Chateau & Bungalow, recycled tissue paper is used for pom-poms for a child’s birthday party to not only add color and texture, but also to hide ceiling fans. Martha Stewart has some great ideas as well, such as Mexican paper decorations to hang in a window, tissue paper eggs for Easter and a tissue paper garland.
In this season of celebrations, unwrap carefully and think twice before throwing that tissue paper in the trash. Not only does it almost always have other uses, but saving it also saves you money. There are tons of other ideas out there, too. Have you recycled tissue paper in a creative way? Let us know! 