Dear Ms. Cards Etiquette,
I want to send photo cards printed on recycled paper but wonder if they will fade over time?
Ms. Springer

Good question and good for you for wanting to help save our planet by sending cards printed on recycled paper!

Recycled cards are certainly growing in popularity and Ms. Cards Etiquette wants you to know that recycled paper is not only good for the planet, but has a look and feel so close to non-recycled paper that you probably wouldn’t know the difference if the recycled symbol wasn’t printed on the back of the card!

For any printed greeting cards, including photo or digitally printed cards, fade resistance is attributed more to the inks involved in the printing process than to the paper that is used. All printed materials will fade over time, or more quickly if left in direct sunlight, but the chemicals in the inks used are meant to prevent fade and maintain color quality under normal circumstances. Photo cards are printed with much the same inks as those used for traditional printing so should not fade any faster than any other printed piece. The recycled paper will “hold” the ink just as well as non-recycled paper.

So, don’t worry about the quality of photo cards printed on recycled paper, Grandma and Grandpa Springer will be able to pull out the photo card of the grandkids and see their toothless smiling faces for years to come! And, not only that, but they’ll be pleased with your effort to go “green” to help this and future generations of little Springer’s!

At CardsDirect, we are very concerned about the environment. As a card company, we get a lot of questions from our consumers about what we do to promote environmentalism. Here are just 5 things we do:

1. We are encouraging our paper suppliers to become get the Forest Stewardship Council certification. This certification states that the paper products that are used in our cards come from managed forests. In other words, the trees that are harvested for the paper in our cards comes from forests that are planted to make paper products. These trees are like a crop and are planted by man - not like a natural growth forests. Currently, one of our paper suppliers has this certification, and we are hopeful the others can get this as well.
2. We are increasing the amount of 100 percent recycled paper we use. Before the end of the year, Cards Direct is looking make recycled paper a choice on all of our photo cards.
3. CardsDirect was the initiator of recycling program in our office building. In the city of Plano, Texas, only residential homes have recycling provided by the city. While we had to incur an extra expense to have recycling provided for office, we believe it was a worthwhile expense. We worked to get a recycling program brought to our office building, and we are happy to also report that the company from whom we lease our office space has decided to bring the recycling program to all their other office spaces in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area.
4. Our charity card recycling program: We’re proud to have our recycling program which donates unused cards to charities and non-profit programs. This was a huge success and we will be implementing this in years to come.
5. We recycle misprints. Yes, we would like to say that 100 percent of our card orders are perfect for everyone, but even with very easy to use online ordering system and our customer service reps with eagle eyes for spelling errors, we do sometimes have orders that go wrong. At the end of the year, all of these are recycled.

At CardsDirect, we are always looking for ways to make our business and operations more environmentally friendly. We are always open to new ideas. If you have any ideas that we may be able to use to make our systems better for the environment, please contact us act: Support at CardsDirect dot com.

Dear Ms. Cards Etiquette,
Every one talks about how good it is to recycle paper, but really, how is recycled paper made?
Science Kid at Heart

That’s a great question, Kid. And, Ms. Cards Etiquette had to do a little bit of homework to learn about how recycled paper is actually made. In very general terms, the used paper must be cleaned and have the old ink removed from it before it can be made into regular paper. Interestingly enough, after the paper is cleaned into clean paper pulp, the process is much the same as making regular virgin paper.

But, let’s start from the beginning.

First, the paper is put into a large bin and water is added so that a new paper pulp can be made. Large beaters, similar to a giant cake mixer, stir in the paper so that the fibers are separated from each other. This is then put through a screen to remove large contaminants that are bigger than the pulp fibers. The pulp slurry may also be put through centrifuge to remove materials that are more dense than pulp fibers. This process also removes foreign material from the slurry.

Next, the ink removal must happen. This is done by passing air bubbles through the slurry. This slurry contains what is called a surfacent. The surfacent is a kind of detergent and that reduces the surface tension of water and allows for the ink to float to the surface. Very little of the surfacent is needed to make this happen. (This is sometimes called the de-inking process.)

Once the slurry is de-inked, the pulp is kneaded and washed to remove small particles. Then, if the paper is to be white, the pulp is bleached to remove all color.

Clean fiber is now ready to be made into paper. And the process is exactly the same to make paper from recycled pulp as it is from virgin tree pulp.

The paper pulp is sprayed into a long wide screen which is called a wire. The pulp stays on top of the screen and the water in it drains out the bottom. This water is siphoned off to be used over and over. The paper pulp fiber mat is squeezed between felt covered rollers to absorb the rest of the water.

Next, the wet paper passes through hot metal rollers to heat and dry the sheets. The paper is also pressed through big heavy cast iron rollers to press the paper into a smooth and uniform thickness. (If you have ever made pasta the process is exactly the same: the paper is put through rollers that gradually get closer and closer together to make the paper thinner.)

The paper is then put onto rolls about the size of a small car. Each roll can easily weigh 2 tons. These giant rolls are called “jumbo rolls” and all paper — from the thermal paper used at the gas station pump to printer paper sheets and newsprint are cut from these jumbo rolls.

The good news about this process is that the process of making paper from recycled paper uses 40% less energy than if paper is made from unrecycled pulp. So buying recycled paper really does make the world a little greener.

CardsDirect has a good selection of cards made from recycled paper. In the future, we are going to add more to our stock.

Many people, when they think of “recycled cards” think of cards that have a brown paper stock ‘industrial cardoboard box’ look to them. Well, not anymore. The technology for making paper from post consumer recycled paper has really taken off. Now, you can get cards on recycled paper that don’t have the ‘recycled paper look’ to them. In fact, you’d probably have a hard time seeing the difference between a card made from recycled paper and one that is made from non-recycled paper.

Here at CardsDirect, our line of recycled cards has proven so popular this year that we are looking to increase the number of cards printed on recycled paper.

So, for our Earth Day recycling series, I thought I’d put together a list of our top five selling recycled cards…none of which look even remotely like a cardboard box.

This is a modern and fun little birthday card with foil trim and a modern watercolor look. It’s an all around recycled paper birthday card that works well for anyone.

The ‘great events’ card can be used for any group celebration around the office. This is a good one to have handy as it can be used for anything.

Bright blue and silver foil make this card a popular choice. The dancing balloons are a fun way to celebrate someone’s birthday.

One of our very formal thank you cards makes our top selling list. This card has a premium cardstock look even though it is made from recycled paper. It is a card any recipient would be happy to receive.

Our chain flower sympathy card is a modern way to send your condolences. Delicate flowers outline the hearthfelt sympathy message. (You might want to click the card to go to the actual page and mouse over the image to see the detail in the card.)

Of course, you can see all of our recycled cards here

Well, today is Earth Day, and everyone looking for more ways of being green this year.

In light of that, Ms. Cards Etiquette is going to have a series of “Green” inspired posts on ways you can make your card mailings more earth friendly and ways CardsDirect is working to make their own operations more environmentally friendly.

We hope you will enjoy it.