No-Waste Gift Wrapping Ideas

Here are some ideas that don’t include wrapping paper for your holiday gift giving:

• Make the wrapping part of the gift. For example, a kitchen gift can be wrapped in a colorful dish towel or oven mitt.
• Wrap gifts in a drawstring fabric bag or use leftover fabric or material.
• Reuse old holiday cards and cut into gift tags. Most ribbon can be reused as well.
• Add bows to holiday shopping bags or gift boxes instead of wrapping.
• Decorate brown paper bags and use as gift-wrap.
• Use a stocking to put your gifts in.
• Give gifts in baskets, tins, jars or buckets.
• If you purchase store bought wrapping paper, look for the kind with recycled content.

Holiday Recycling Tips

This time of the year with gifts, holiday cards and catalogs, it can be difficult to figure out which items can be recycled and which ones are non-recyclable.

Holiday items you can recycle:
• Regular gift-wrapping paper
• paper shopping bags
• gift boxes
• holiday cards and envelopes
• packing paper & cardboard packing pieces
• holiday catalogs and advertisements

Holiday items you can’t recycle:
• Liners and tissue paper from shopping bags and shoe & gift boxes
• ribbon
• foil backed wrapping paper
• plastic bags and wrappers
• Styrofoam packing peanuts
• rigid Styrofoam

Most mailing services will accept clean, bagged Styrofoam peanuts for reuse.

Bend Garbage & Recycling's Holiday Collection Schedule

On Thanksgiving Day, November 25th, Bend Garbage & Recycling's collection schedule will operate as usual. Please have your carts out by 6:00 a.m. on your collection day.

Bend Garbage & Recycling office will be closed Thanksgiving and will reopen on Friday, November 26th at 8:00 a.m. 541-382-2263


This year, Christmas Day and New Years Day both fall on Saturday which means there will be no interruption in your garbage & recycling collection schedule. Please have your carts out curbside by 6:00 a.m. on your collection day.