Over time things change, maybe your title changes or you have a new office, so what do you do with those old business cards that are no longer useful for their original purpose? Of course, you should recycle them, but before you do that, first reuse them.
I recently started using my old business cards as scratch paper for taking little notes. While I’m listening to voicemail I find it useful to write down the phone number, so I write it on the back. I would not recommend writing notes for other people on them as they may get confused by the outdated information on the other side, but they make perfect little scraps of paper for personal notes. When I’m done with the note, I put them in the recycle bin.
The other lesson I learned about business cards, is that you should really only get as many as you think you might need before that next change, let’s hope promotion. The last time I ordered business cards getting 500 was only a dollar or so more than getting 250, so I got 500. Less than 2 years later, I still have well over 350 cards that I never used, so I can write a lot of notes. This time around, I did the green thing and only ordered 250 cards. I can always order more and hopefully by then the options for environmentally friendly business cards will be more readily available.
Happy Greening!
Jon
They also make good scrap paper for kids…I find smaller pieces of paper help my kids work on fine motor skills more than a huge piece of paper.
They are also the perfect size to use as present tags for this upcoming holiday season!