A-Z Recycling Guide -- Greeting Cards

Dark green and red holiday envelopes (and flyers) cannot be recycled because of beater dyes in the paper that do not come out in the recycling process. Instead, choose only pastel or white envelopes. Colors on cards are generally printed on, rather than the fibers being dyed themselves, so dark colors on cards are not a concern for recycling. However, some cards are decorated with non-paper materials like aluminum foil, photographs, ribbons, glitter, etc. These cards cannot be recycled unless you are able to remove the non-paper material.

Recyclable greeting cards may be recycled with curbside single-stream recycling or at the recycling drop-off centers.

See Eco-Cycle's Zero Waste Holiday Guide for more holiday tips as well as dates and locations of special holiday recycling collections.