Sustainable, Re-Usable Greeting Cards?

One of the cleverest new products to hit my doorstep lately . . . by the way, just because we're not publishing Relevant Times anymore, it doesn't mean we don't still do product reviews that get some great exposure in our various blogs - see banner on side for link to one of Green Diva Meg's other blogs. We are asked to do reviews all the time and we LOVE to do them, so if you have a product or a book you want us to review, send it along!

Okay, sorry about that tangent.

I am very excited about this new concept called ReProduct from a company called C2C, a cradle-to-cradle design company.

Re-Usable greeting cards?

When I first heard about the idea, I thought it involved erasable ink and a new envelope. Wrong. I'm not as stupid as I sound, but this was not an easy concept to grasp right away, but once I got it, I am totally sold.

It's a little like Netflix, and if you love movies and haven't tried it yet - DO IT!!! The idea of mailing movies back and forth seems cumbersome and awkward or something, but they make it so easy, that once you try it, you are sold.

ReProduct has taken the simplicity of re-mailing something and applied it to the all-American habit of sending greeting cards. By the way, the cards are beautiful. First of all, the cards are made from healthy, non-toxic materials that minimize chemical waste in the manufacturing process and if folks follow their concept, they don't end up in landfills - or at least not for a VERY long time.

Here's how it works:

1. You buy these cool cards that come with special envelopes from ReProduct.com


2. Send the card out!


3. The receiver (here's the potential wrinkle) hopefully is so jazzed by the idea and the instructions are clear on the back of the card and on the envelope, that they send it along to the next user! But, hey, everyone wants to be green now, right?
   
4. ReProduct has an arrangement with Shaw Carpets who receives the cards and uses 100% of them to make new sustainable, non-toxic carpets.
   

There is a little demo of how it works on their website.

They also have a line of corporate reports and brochures they are developing, which I think is wonderful, but will take perhaps a wee bit more time to adopt than the greeting card thing.