Health, Taken Seriously

I have mixed feelings about cards.  On one hand, I enjoy receiving them, especially if some thought was taken into writing something inside.  I do truly like thank yous and birthday wishes and such.  On the other hand, within days of receiving most cards, I throw them out.  Was that message worth the energy to produce, transport, and send when the final end product is thrown in your trashcan (or hopefully in most cases, your recycle bin)?  At least holiday cards stay on our piano for longer, but still.

I think there are two ways to tackle this dilemma–one, reduce the size and quantity of your cards, and two, reduce the number of ones that end up in the trash.  A great way to reduce holiday waste is to really downsize holiday cards.  Send the photo variety.  Send a postcard or notecard.  Send cards made of post-consumer recycled paper.  Skip the big, folded cards with foil lined envelopes.  The folded cards, while fun to open, are twice as wasteful as notecards.

I also want to share an idea I came up with several years ago, after feeling really badly about throwing away all our holiday cards after Christmas.  I decided to start a card scrapbook.  I bought a simple, red scrapbook and at the end of each holiday season, I tape our favorite cards (mostly the ones with photos) into the book.  The book goes into storage along with all our other decorations.  The following year, when we’re putting up our tree and decor, I really enjoy flipping through the pages of this holiday coffee table book.  It’s especially nice because we often get cards from the same families each year, and it’s fun to see how their lives (or children!) have changed over the past four years.  I also feel a lot better about not throwing away so many cards.

Filed under: Environment on December 19th, 2008