You never know if your loved ones are going to like what you bought them for the holidays. But one thing you can count on？ A huge pile of paper trash， the detritus from unwrapping presents.

Americans spend more than $8 billion dollars a year on wrapping paper， according to a report. And people toss millions of pounds of that precious paper in the garbage.

The truth is， its not that easy to recycle. Metallic or shiny wrapping papers cant be recycled. Neither can bows or ribbons. And tissue paper doesnt have long enough fibers for recycling. One municipal recycler suggests composting tissue instead.

Though people are spending a lot of money on wrapping paper and ribbons today， it is predicted that people will be buying more decorative boxes and bags in the future—a more sustainable choice， because those items can be used year after year. Wrapping gifts in fabric—a Japanese tradition—is also growing in popularity.

A study in the Journal of Consumer Psychology found that people were happier with their gifts when they got to unwrap them. So when you wrap presents for your friends next time， remember to choose recyclable wrapping paper or reusable decorative bags.

你永遠(yuǎn)不知道你愛的人是否會喜歡你為他們買的節(jié)日禮物。但有一樣?xùn)|西他們肯定不喜歡，那就是拆開禮物后的一大堆廢紙和碎屑。

根據(jù)一份報告，美國人每年在包裝紙上的花費(fèi)超過80億美元。而且數(shù)百萬磅珍貴的包裝紙被人們?nèi)舆M(jìn)垃圾箱。

事實(shí)上，包裝紙回收并沒有那么容易。金屬或閃亮的包裝紙不能回收。蝴蝶結(jié)和絲帶也不能。而棉紙的纖維不夠長，也無法回收。一位市政回收者建議用堆肥紙代替。

目前，人們在包裝紙和絲帶上花了很多錢，但據(jù)預(yù)測，未來人們將會購買更多的裝飾盒和禮品袋——這是一種更加可持續(xù)的選擇，因?yàn)檫@些東西可以年復(fù)一年地使用。用織物包裝禮物是日本人的一個傳統(tǒng)，如今這種包裝方式越來越受歡迎。

《消費(fèi)者心理學(xué)雜志》的一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，人們在打開禮物包裝時，他們對自己的禮物更滿意。因此，下一次你為朋友包裝禮物的時候，記得選用可回收的包裝紙或可重復(fù)使用的禮品袋。

detritus /d?'tra?t?s/ n. 垃圾;廢物

precious /'pre??s/ adj. 寶貴的;珍貴的

municipal /mju?'n?s?pl/ adj. 市政的;地方政府的

compost /'k?mp?st/ v. 把……制成堆肥

sustainable /s?'ste?n?bl/ adj. 可持續(xù)的

fabric /'f?br?k/ n. 織物;布料