Everyone enjoys receiving greeting cards from relatives and friends during the festive season.  Australia Post, as well as delivering cards, now plays an important role in recycling them.

Each year from Boxing Day until the end of January customers can pick up a free reply-paid recycling envelope from participating Australia Post outlets - while stocks last.   This is such a simple way to be involved in recycling, especially for our regional customers, and a very easy way for people to see that recycling reinvents the old to create the new! 

The envelope fits approximately 60 cards and is clearly and colourfully labelled.  All the envelopes are sent to recycling facilities in each state where they are turned into 'SAFE' paper products.

This year's campaign was a huge success, with more than 11.7 million Christmas cards sent through the Australia Post mail network for recycling.

Since the Cards 4 Planet Ark campaign began 14 years ago, over 600 million greeting cards have been recycled - saving over 115,000 trees.  By working together we can all make an even greater contribution to our environment.

View the Internet video of Pat Cash, co-founder of Planet Ark, talking about how everyone can make a difference to the environment by recycling old greeting cards!  

(MP4 File 4.113kb) This file uses QuickTime.

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How it works

		Customers visit their nearest Australia Post outlet during January to receive a free reply-paid Cards 4 Planet Ark recycling envelope. The envelopes - an innovative idea developed by Australia Post - and Post’s extensive mail network, provide a simple way of enabling remote communities to participate in recycling.
		Customers take the envelope home and fill it with their used greeting cards.  The envelope comfortably fits 60 cards.
		Customers place the filled envelope in their local street posting box.
		Cards 4 Planet Ark recycling envelopes arrive from all over the state to the mail centre for processing.
		The  envelopes are placed in large containers for pick up by the recycling company who then delivers to recycling plants in each state.
		Shredded post-consumer paper (eg. greeting cards, clean waste paper) ready to be fed into the production process.
		Shredded paper mixed with water to create a slurry.   The paper is then slushed in a pulper which works like a huge blender.Other things are added so the paper fibres stick together. It is then mixed with more water and cleaned.
		The mixture is drained on a moving wire mesh, squeezed and dried, then rolled out for a smooth finish and formed into a continuous paper sheet. (photo courtesy of Amcor)
		It is then rolled on to a very large reel and is now ready to make into new recycled paper products including cartonboard.

It’s so easy for all Australia Post customers to be involved in recycling and to give the environment a Happy New Year!

For schools

• Resources and materials for schools

Green House Challenge

• Read about Post's involvement in the Green House Challenge