How can I reuse or recycle wine gift bags?
We’ve covered reuses for old gift bags in general before but Meri emailed asking about one particular type:
I have a growing collection of wine bags – mostly paper – that are too nice to toss.
How can I recycle them – get them to people who might reuse them?
Most people I know reuse wine bags (and all gift bags) as many times as they can while they’re still in good enough condition to pass on. There is a bit of a tradition in my family to leave gift tags bare or written using a soft pencil to facilitate multiple uses.
If you’d rather not re-uses them yourself and have a number to give away, offer them on your local Freecycle/Freegle list. Scrap stores would probably welcome them with open arms too, as would organisers of local charity events like tombola or raffles, to make the prizes fancier/more mysterious.
Any other suggestions on where to pass them on? And what about reuses for the tall thin gift bags like these?
They’re perfect for regifting when you want to give away a bottle of wine, or homemade flavoured vinegar, or tall thin packages like spaghetti. You can also use them to carry your drinking water bottles in.
Magazines and some paperback books would also fit, if rolled up and secured with at string or rubber band.
Also, quart jars of canned goods would fit. Some people make a layered mix for soup or cookies as a gift to fit these jars.
My wife hand-makes her own greetings cards and some of the card or paper that these bags are made from can come in very handy for this.
…someone still has to figure out what to do with the card then, but it least it doesn’t end up in the bin right away.