Is there an environmentally friendly alternative to occasion cards?
A question we hear quite allot is "Is there an environmentally friendly alternative to occasion cards?" People often hate all the waste and they are growing more and more conscious of the environmental impact of often plastic coated occasion cards. They have an extremely short life before they end up being thrown away but social ties keep people sending them as they do not want to be unsociable.
E Cards
Our first suggestion is why not send an E Card? With so many free messaging apps at our fingertips these days it is a no brainer.
If you are scared of being seen as a “cheap skate” just be honest. Include in your E Card message that you have chosen to do this because you a conscious of the waste produced by traditional cards, ask that you be sent E Cards in return instead of traditional cards and save twice as much waste! Yes you will save money too, but that is an added bonus.
You might have a different reason for being reluctant to switch to electronic occasions cards, maybe you feel that some of the sentiment is left out of an E card? All that depends entirely on how much thought and effort you want to put into your E card. A great idea suggested to our community was to include photo collages of handpicked pictures of you and the recipient or pictures of things that resonate with the receiver, these could be funny photos of subjects from your inside jokes or memes that you both find hilarious.
Send the Cards you Receive Next Year
Maybe you heard the story that circulated in the media a while back about two friends that sent each other a Christmas card backwards and forwards for 36 years. Now every time one of the pair receive the card, they get to see that years’ Christmas greeting but all the years before it too. It started off as a joke between the pair and it became an annual tradition strengthening the bond between the two friends. To fit more greetings in the card the pair use post it notes, you can do the same or you can cover up old greetings with sticky labels, some people prefer to cut the front cover off of the old card and stick that to some plain card to make their own with more environmentally friendly materials.
Send Environmentally Friendly Cards
There are a whole range of environmentally friendly cards available these days as environmentalism is becoming more popular. There are companies out there that make vegan edible cards, fully biodegradable cards, plastic free cards and even cards infused with the seeds of flowers so they can be planted when it comes the time to dispose of the card.
Make Occasion Cards Yourself
You could always make your own occasion cards, that way you have the freedom to choose environmentally friendly materials or recycle materials that you have accumulated. Good great community tips for sourcing materials are to cut up junk mail and magazines, when you begin to keep an eye out you would be surprised of all the amazing looking patterns you can salvage. Some people re-purpose the drawing and art of their children which adds a nice personal touch, especially great for close family members. Another top tip is to make the occasion cards in a postcard style to avoid the need for an envelope. If an envelope is required depending on the card style, or whether you want to send money, try asking friends or family they may receive allot of mail at their home or where they work and have access to envelopes that can be reused.
Send Gifts Instead of Occasion Cards
Why not just not send a card at all? Just send a useful gift and you could give a hand written note with it. You could send a photograph or a poster and sign it as you would an occasion card or send any gift with a thoughtful note on a gift tag.
What About the Occasion Cards you Receive?
Even if you choose not to send cards yourself it is likely you are still going to receive some. If you’re anxious about people thinking you are cheap if you resend the cards, even though in our opinion there is no need to be! But we know that is how some people think, you could use the cards you receive to make new cards as mentioned above or you can re-purpose them to make new things entirely like gift tags. One idea we heard from the community was you can use the old cards you receive as decorations for the coming years, to visualise this imagine a child’s birthday, on their birthday you could have a bunting of sorts with cards from all their previous birthdays and all those lovely pictures and messages would be include this saves using traditional normally single use plastic decorations and it is a pretty nice sentiment.
Any Ideas we Missed?
If you have any eco occasion card ideas we would love to hear from you! Drop us a message via Facebook or send us an email.