The Budget Ecoist- Eco Living on a Budget

Woodland Trust and Recycle Now are partners in a program to collect 100 million Christmas cards, and say that the effort will “ will enable 24,000 trees to be planted and save 2,600 tonnes of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases – equivalent to taking 800 cars off the road.” In Britain, special bins will be setup for collection of old Christmas cards which include Tk Maxx, Tesco, and also M&S stores. 

Woodland Trust and Recycle Now will also use some of the profits to plant new trees; every card dropped off at a donation site will be recycled in special paper mills and turned into a new product. This program will not only save trees, but reduce landfills and in the process reduce the amount of green house gases.

One major reason for this effort?  Just 12% of the UK is covered by woods compared to the European average of 44%.  Woodland Trust and Recycle Now believe they can increase the amount of woods coverage on the UK with this program.

Makes you wonder if a similar effort would make the US a little greener, too. Keep this in mind on any holiday when you receive lots of cards—recycling or reusing them is doing good.