I mentioned furoshiki last year: traditional Japanese wrapping cloths that bundle, decorate and make parcels portable. Since a lot of us have square table cloths (or even large napkins) and packages to wrap, this might be an attractive alternative to using a lot of paper and whatnot. Furoshiki can be used to carry about anything — I’m partial to the nihon bin tsutsumi wrap which decorates and makes portable two tall bottles — and the Japanese environment ministry is encouraging their use in place of newer but disposable shopping bags.
Alas, the links I gave last year are dead. But a new site furoshiki.com has popped up to answer your questions. There are a bunch of technique videos on YouTube, too.