WRAPPING

In the UK, we throw away enough wrapping paper to circle the globe nine times every Christmas. “It is an absolute nightmare for us,” says Simon Ellin, CEO of the Recycling Association.

Not all wrapping paper is, in fact, paper. “Use the scrunch test,” says Simon, “If you scrunch it and it stays scrunched, it’s paper. If not, it’s plastic and you can’t recycle it.” Don’t get him started on glitter: “Plastic based.”

I take his point. I buy red twine and paperbased tape and wrap the first of my gifts in old copies of The Telegraph. It looks classy, but my five-year-old’s aesthetic is a little more… vibrant, so we buy biodegradable glitter. The company Eco Glitter Fun (ecoglitterfun. com) tell me they have seen sales rise by 600 per cent this year.

Meanwhile, the Japanese tradition of furoshiki (that’s wrapping gifts in fabric) is also growing in popularity. “We’ve seen a huge increase in interest over the last two years,” says Nicky Rajska, co-founder of fabric gift-wrap company Wrag Wrap.

Their “crackle wrap” comes in Christmas prints and folds and sounds like paper. It’s more expensive (£3.85 for a 30 x 30cm sheet, wragwrap.com) but will last a lifetime. The only difficulty will be in persuading my family to hand it back, or finding new stores of generosity within myself.

Sunday 9 December 2018

£7,883 £75,000 2.0-litre four-cylinder 124mph 0-60mph in

19.0mpg

RESCUE PET

Eddie Hall is a fiveyear-old tabby and white rescue cat. He needs to live indoors. Contact Mayhew on 020 8962 8000 or visit themayhew.org. To view outcomes of rescued pets, see petethevet.com

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The Chinese government has ruled that in future e it will be necessary to include de “Xi Jinping Thought” ght” – the president’s philosophy hy – in which occasions? (a) Office parties (b) Funerals (c) Weddings

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