Where to Buy Recycled Christmas Cards...

This year, Americans will send about 1.8 billion cards during the holidays. Most of these cards are made from virgin paper, and most of them end up in the trash after the holidays.

Creating cards from recycled paper not only saves virgin forest, but it also takes less energy to create paper from recycled materials than virgin materials. So if you're looking for a way to reduce your environmental impact this year, here are some places where you can find recycled Christmas cards. Happy shopping!

My Good Greetings only sells Earth-friendly recycled cards. Their ECO-Saver Holiday cards are made of 100% recycled paper (69% post-consumer waste) and paired with 100% recycled envelopes manufactured with 100% post-consumer recovered fiber. And they send them with 100% recycled labels and recycled shipping materials. They also offset their carbon footprint through Greenshipper.

Pear Tree Greetings is another place that offers a nice selection of eco-friendly Christmas cards and photo cards printed on 100% post-consumer waste card stock. What I like about Pear Tree is that they have a great selection of other stylish and unusual Christmas cards, including photo ornament cards you can hang on the tree, Christmas letter cards that include your holiday letter printed on the card, photo magnet cards, and a variety of other innovative greeting cards.

Paper Culture only sells cards made of 100% post-consumer recycled waste, and the company plants a tree in a national forest with each order. In addition, they offer customers the option of personalizing each card individually online and then allowing PaperCulture to send the cards directly to the recipients. No extra shipping to your house! Of course, you can always do it the old-fashioned way and have them ship the cards to your house and then mail them yourselves, but PaperCulture tempts you not to do that - you'll pay a shipping charge to have the cards sent to you, but you'll pay only the price of postage to have the cards sent directly to your recipient. So you'll save money AND energy!

Gallery Collection - You'll find two types of cards in their Environmentally Friendly Christmas Card category - recycled paper cards and wind power cards. Cards are marked with icons to let you easily see which ones are made at low-impact, emissions-free mills powered by wind-generated, renewable energy, which ones are made from recycled paper, and which ones are made from raw materials that have been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Sierra Club - The Sierra Club's green Christmas cards offer beautiful images of nature on them and come on recycled paper with soy inks. Plus, you'll be supporting their environmental efforts with each purchase.

Greenfield Paper - In addition to offering 16 recycled card designs, Greenfield Paper also offers recycled gift wrap.

Minted.com allows customers to choose the type of paper they'd like their cards printed on, including the option of FSC-certified, 100% post-consumer waste paper manufactured with wind-power. They have a nice selection of flat and folded photo holiday cards, and they make it easy to find what you want by allowing you to sort by format, number of photos and other options.

The US post office has been issuing Christmas postage stamps for holiday mail since 1962, but digital technology has made it possible for virtually anyone to create personalized USPS stamps for the holidays or to buy art created by others. If you'd like to add some character to your holiday envelopes, check out some of the great designs available on Zazzle. Here's a few of the Christmas stamps available there.

Customizable Christmas postage stamp

These days, many products sport the familiar green recycling logo. But what does it mean? Here's a quick guide.

- Recyclable: Sometimes manufacturers will stick a green recycle logo on their products (such as plastic bottles) with a phrase such as "please recycle." This means the product can be recycled where facilities exist. But it does not mean the product contains recycled material.

- Made of recycled content: If the label doesn't specify, the product may be from pre-consumer waste (discarded materials that would have been thrown out in the manufacturing process) or post-consumer waste (something that was used by a consumer and then returned for recycling into a new product).

- Recycled content with post-consumer waste: If the label specifies post-consumer waste, it means the product was made from materials that were used and recycled by a consumer and then turned into another product. This is the best choice. When possible, look for 100% post-consumer waste.

1. Bookmarks - If you or anyone in your family is a reader, one of the easier ways to reuse your old cards is to cut them into long strips about one to two inches wide and use them to keep your place in your favorite book.

2. Gift tags - Create square or rectangle shapes from your old cards, then fold them and use as gift tags.

3. Post cards - Cut off the picture side of the card and draw a line down the blank back to use it as a postcard. Write your message on the left and address on the right.

4. Dinner placecards - If you have a big dinner every holiday, save your old Christmas cards and turn them into unique table place cards. Simply discard the back portion of the cards and cut the remaining picture into a small rectangle. Then fold the remaining picture in half to create a placecard.

5. Collage placemats - Cut pictures from your cards into fun shapes and arrange them, collage-style, on a sheet of 11x17" paper, then laminate.

6. Tree decorations - Snip your favorite picture from the card, punch a hole in the top, put a string through it and use it as an ornament on the tree.

7. Christmas tree spiral - First cut the card into a circle. Then turn it into a spiral by cutting from the outside of the circle and working your way in. Then pull the spiral apart slightly and put a hole and string in the top to hang it three-dimensionally on the tree.

8. Scrapbooking - Cut out the pictures and use for scrapbooking projects.

9. New cards - Get blank cards from an arts and craft store and paste pictures from your old cards on them to create fun new holiday cards for the next year. Or send them to the St. Jude card program and let the kids at the St. Jude's Ranch turn them into new cards that they sell to benefit this nonprofit home for abused kids.

10. Craft projects - Save pictures from used cards for young kids to use for arts and crafts projects or see if a teacher at your local school would be interested in your old cards. (You can cut off the part with personal notes to preserve privacy.)

11. Jigsaw puzzle game - Cut 5 -6 cards into several pieces, mix them all together, and have the kids try to put them back together.

12. Napkin rings - Cut colorful strips from your cards and staple them to form a loop that can hold your napkins. For extra strength, wrap the strips around an old toilet paper tube.

13. Gift wrap decoration - Center the picture from an old card on the front of a gift package and create a border with ribbon to create a picture frame in the middle of the package.

14. Gift bags - Glue pictures on the sides of a brown paper bag or plain colored gift bag to create a unique gift bag.

15. Christmas recipe cards - Cut off the backs of the card and use the blank side of the picture to write favorite holiday recipes. Is also great for attaching the poem when creating reindeer poop, snowman poop and other Christmas gag gifts.

16. Confetti - Use a hole punch to create confetti. Send it in an envelope with a card for the next birthday, anniversary or other special occasion. A heart-shaped punch is great for making Valentine's confetti.

If you live in the UK, you can recycle your Christmas cards and help protect trees.

Each year The Woodland Trust joins with UK retailers to collect and recycle millions of holiday cards. The cards are recycled into newspapers, paper towels and writing paper, and the money raised goes to support The Woodland Trust, a charitable organization that preserves woodlands.

Simply take your used cards to WH Smith high street stores, Tesco, TK Maxx or Marks & Spencer between January 2 and 31. They do the rest, and the money raised goes to support The Woodland Trust's conservation efforts. In 2008, the program raised over £80,000 in donations and gift in kind.

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