Why can’t greetings cards go in the green bin?

Published: 15 January 2020

In the first of what we hope are many features to come, super knowledgeable Denis the Dustcart explains why we can't put greeting cards in the green bin in Exeter.

You can follow Denis on his Facebook page to keep up with information about Recycling issues.

Many of you want to know why we don’t take Christmas or birthday cards for recycling, even if they don’t have glitter or foil on them. Other authorities do, so why not Exeter.

While it’s true that we don’t take cards in the green bin, there is a lot of thought behind this decision. The situation isn’t what it appears to be.

By the very nature of their being produced very cheaply in their millions, cards are not of a sufficient quality to recycle along with the higher-grade cardboard Exeter receives – and there aren’t enough spaces on the sorting line to have people picking off cards for baling separately.

But cards also vary so widely in composition that, were we to accept them, we would have to prescribe to the public what we could and couldn’t accept, which would lead to significant confusion all round. Any with glitter and foil, for example, are simply not recyclable, so, for our own processes, accepting cards would mean having not only to separate cards from other cardboard and paper, but types of cards from other types of cards.

Actually, ‘cardboard’ in the waste industry does not mean as many things as you might think. Cardboard classification is ‘brown and corrugated’ or OCC (Old Corrugated Containers). Anything that is not brown and corrugated is classed as a paper product (Hard Mixed). Cereal boxes, Christmas cards, toilet roll cores, etc., are all hugely varied, single-ply, sometimes laminated and coloured paper products of lower quality and value than actual cardboard.

(We do still want cereal boxes and loo rolls, though! They don't pose quite the same problem as cards, since none are glittery. It's just important to understand that not all card is equal, and not all of it is likely to become anything of any quality.)

Before accepting single-ply mixed-fibre paper products like these, however, we have to make a decision about what we will actually be presenting to the market place. What will the material become? Is recycling the material actually an efficient use of energy and resources? Is it financially viable? The decision must be finely and fully considered, environmentally and economically.

As with plastics: shipping is not the same as recycling. The fact is, Exeter is the only local authority in Devon and across the peninsula – and even Dorset, Somerset and Avon – that can, through its sorting procedures, produce the higher grade of cardboard, ensuring the material is recycled into quality products while achieving a much higher income for public services.

Only 10% of this high-quality grade is permitted to be made up of the lower quality single-ply stuff. Anything more would result in our loads being rejected and a loss of income, and – significantly, as a result of our losing a reputation for quality – a lesser ability to ensure what we send for recycling is actually turned into quality products that can then be recycled again.

Here in Exeter we have spent several years improving the quality of our card from a low-grade mixed grade to a high-quality grade. We’ve managed this with the great help of Exeter’s residents, who we assist in navigating the seemingly infinite consequences of different purchases through our popular Denis the Dustcart Facebook page; we also work with businesses, developing industry relationships and providing trade collection services that benefit our effort to increase the quality of our recycling.

All of this means that Exeter, unlike other authorities, does not have to pay to dispose of low-grade cardboard during market slumps and periods of oversupply.

So why not move the lower quality single-ply mix into our paper stream?

Quite simply, it isn’t permitted.

Exeter produces a high-quality paper stream, which again cannot be diluted by items such as Christmas cards and wrapping paper. This mixed board must be sold as a separate, lower grade commodity. If we were to focus on sorting it on the recycling line, we would do so at the expense of better-quality material that would bring in more money and be more likely to get turned into something worthwhile.

Ultimately, it isn’t much good looking at what can’t be recycled when what it is that can’t be recycled is innately harmful. If it’s single-use packaging, the solution is not recycling or composting: those are just ways of at best lessening and at worst mitigating the harm the item has already done or will do to the environment.

The solution is to remove it from the consumer market. Don’t buy it; don’t make it.

We, as a waste collection authority, must ensure the material we collect is recycled when it can be, but the responsibility for what enters our waste and recycling vehicles is, in large part, the responsibility of those that put that waste in their bin.

‘Recycle’ is third on the official waste hierarchy; first is ‘reduce’, aka ‘avoid’, and second is ‘reuse’.

There is an awful lot of embedded carbon in greetings cards. Chemicals, deforestation, biodiversity loss. And at the end of that, they’re difficult to recycle. Millions of gallons of water go into making them, and in the main we only send them out of a sense of tradition.

There are times, of course, when it’s necessary and kind to write a card – such as to a lonely relative. But in most circumstances there are clear alternatives. If a card once a year is the only communication we have with certain people, surely an electronic message would do where one can be received?

We live in the age of electronic messaging. Now, the environmental and human cost of mining rare earth minerals to meet our demand for the latest tech is another thing to consider very seriously, but that demand is there and electronic messaging is the present and future, whether we use new or reconditioned or ethically-sourced tech. By sending cards, are we just making a situation worse for the sake of nostalgia or tradition?

Even if what we buy is made from recycled material, it’s still had to go through an energy- and water-intensive process to get to us.

Placing the emphasis mainly or solely on responsible waste disposal and recycling is a bit like placing the emphasis on ocean clear-up rather than on the prevention of ocean plastic waste. Yes, the industry needs to ensure we can recycle things effectively, and we all need to play our part in clearing up past and current damage to the world, but more vital is that we as individuals and as a society and a human race reduce the amount of waste we produce.

We need to reassess our consumer habits wholesale and look at producer responsibility, not just demand better processing of what we choose to buy.

Greetings cards are an example of this. Perhaps it's time to rethink our special day greetings this year. Is it not enough simply to wish someone a Happy Birthday?