Maui’s Sara Smith was disheartened when she learned that traditional glossy wrapping paper cannot be recycled.
With a growing pile of wrapping products after every party, she decided to create a better option. She founded her business, Wrappily Eco Gift Wrap Co., in 2013.
“On Maui, our landfill’s right in the middle of the island, and you see it growing — now it’s gone from one pu’u to two and three,” Smith said.
“It’s like a visual reminder to me of the mindfulness that we need to have around the holidays and gifting. So I originally launched Wrappily with this idea of, like, how could we create a wrapping paper that can just go in a recycling bin, as easy as newspapers?”
Smith originally worked with local newspaper presses on Maui and Oʻahu to print wrapping sheets. Her attractive designs quickly gained popularity. But without the traditional wrapping paper feel and long roll format, some customers were turned off, she said.
When Target approached her about carrying her brand this year, she worked with a manufacturer to create a new line of affordable, cute and eco-friendly paper products.
“The gift bags and wrapping paper are made of sugar cane fiber paper, which I’m so excited about, and it’s 90% sugar cane and 10% bamboo, which are both fast-growing grasses and tree-free,” she explained.
Smith said it’s a nod to Maui’s history in the sugar cane industry.
“Nostalgic feelings for sugar cane… I grew up on Maui my whole life,” she said. “So it’s produced overseas. Sugar cane is not in Hawaiʻi anymore. But it is just kind of like this moment of bringing that substance that has all this amazing potential for the sustainable factor — it’s great.”
“Being able to bring it to the wrapping paper world and introduce it in Target has been just an exciting moment for my small business,” Smith continued.
In the U.S. alone, an extra million tons of garbage is generated each week between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day – and a lot of it is from gift wrapping and shopping bags.
“I built this brand around people similarly minded that care about holiday waste and how to be more sustainable — getting rid of that guilty, gift-wrapped guilt feeling, you know, where you’re on Christmas morning, with a hefty bag, shoving all the used wrapping paper in a big trash bag that’s going to just kind of go out to the curb,” Smith said.
Wrappily products are available at boutique shops, select Foodland stores, through her website, and at Target.
