Green Options

Rather than toss all those catalogs and offers into the recycle bin, you may as well take advantage of the free craft supplies!

Despite our best efforts to stop marketers from sending us junk mail, the stuff still seems to find its way into our mailbox. We use some of it for things like grocery lists and keeping score when playing Scrabble, but what to do with the rest? Here are some project ideas and junk mail art inspiration.

I loved this post on upcycling greeting cards and it got me thinking about my stash of notecards that are out of style.  In this economy, instead of buying new greeting cards I decided to make my own.  I need a beautiful thank you card to send to the hostess of a dinner party, but all I have is a stack of blah thank you cards.  They were purchased originally years ago to send as a follow up thank you after corporate interviews, therefore they are very corporate.  

I decided to spruce up a few of the cards giving them a handmade touch with a scrap of fabric, bias tape, stamps, and a sewing machine.  It took less than 10 minutes!  I will probably never buy a new card again.  If I ever run out of blank notecards to transform, I can make my own with recycled card stock.

If you’re like 50%-60% of businesses in America you may be thinking about sending customized holiday cards this year.  If so, there’s still time and you have lots of excellent green options.

1. The greenest option is to forgo printed cards and use an eCard.  American Greetings has a wide selction of eCards with minimal advertisements and is free for the first month.  They even have an option to include a virtual gift card good for use at over 100 participating merchants.

2. ReProduct Zero-Waste custom photo holiday cards and envelopes are created using environmentally friendly materials and are completely recyclable—100% of these cards and envelopes are reused in the manufacturing of Shaw carpets. Cards and envelopes are made from synthetic ‘paper’ (virgin polypropylene) which is a treeless alternative. According to Rachel Derby of ReProduct, unlike paper which can only be recycled a limited number of times, plastics can be used again and again without losing any material quality, in a true Cradle to Cradle manner. Recipients follow simple return instructions detailed on the postage paid envelope that comes with the card.

3. Minted has beautiful digitally printed eco-friendly cards. All their holiday cards are printed on 100% PCW recycled 130lb matte card stock. Minted is powered by wind power and the cards are FSC and GreenSeal and Green-E certified. If you order today you will receive your cards by December 15.

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

It is September and in the promotional products industry that means it is time to start talking about holiday cards.

Most companies find holiday cards a great way to show appreciation to their best clients or to send a special thank you to their employees.

Most Ecopreneurists will likely say skip the card, save a tree and send email instead. The problem is that a lot of clients expect cards.

So what to do?

It’s no secret that I have a love affair with my internet connection but opening up the mailbox and finding a handwritten note that made its way across the miles just for muah makes me giddy each time.  Because I have a ‘thing’ for paper and especially unique cards & stationery, I absolutely love it when I come across the recycled sort.   But don’t get me wrong, I don’t gravitate towards the dried petals and chunky paper pulp variety.