Illustration of three smiling trees with faces, surrounded by small plants.

Are Paper Products Even Ethical? D:

Here’s the reality of recycling that we don’t always talk about:

If no one uses recycled materials, recycling stops.

Recycling isn’t magic, it only happens when there’s demand for the things made from recycled material. If people avoided paper completely or only bought ”fresh” paper stock all that well intentioned recycling backs up in the system, eventually becomes “contaminated,” and gets sent to the landfill.

When you use a recycled card or sticker or Calendar you’re not being wasteful. You’re actively supporting the system that prevents waste in the first place.

Recycling can’t thrive on good intentions alone.
A recycled greeting card is one simple, sweet way to keep that loop turning.

Why I Use 100% Recycled Paper

I choose 100% recycled cardstock because it’s the most honest way to make something physical without creating new material demand. The fibers already exist and turning them into art gives them another round of usefulness instead of going to the landfill.

The 60–100 lb recycled cardstock I print on has a soft, natural texture with tiny flecks that hint at the story of its past life. It’s sturdy enough to display, cozy enough to write on, and still fully recyclable when you’re done with it.

How It’s Made

Recycling centers turn yesterday’s paper into pulp, wash away the ink, press it into new sheets, and send it back into the world ready for another round.

It’s kind of a minor miracle.

Want a nostalgic journey to a recycling plant? You can tour one with Mr Rogers here :)

1. The Last Life

Every card begins as something else. Maybe an old envelope, a scribbled note, a discarded scrap that’s ready for a second chance.

Illustration of a conveyor belt moving cardboard boxes into a recycling bin using a robotic arm.

2. The Sorting Adventure

At the recycling center, yesterday’s paper gets sorted and gathered with its fiber friends, all headed toward a fresh start.

3. Paper Soup

The fibers take a nice, pulpy bath where ink and their old life lifts away and the paper relaxes back into something soft and new.

A bowl of water with four animated happy soap bubbles floating in it.
A cartoon illustration of a roll of toilet paper hanging from a wooden holder on a wall.

4. Pressed Fresh

Clean pulp is pressed and dried into fresh sheets that are environmentally friendly and full of personality

5. Printed to order, just for you!

Those sheets land in my little studio, where they’re printed with eco-friendly ink as greeting cards, packaging and even some stickers!

A desktop scene featuring a printer printing a picture of a smiling sun, a potted plant, a pen, and a wall with a framed sun drawing and a blank note.
A greeting card with a cartoon sun with a smiling face inside an open brown envelope, marked 'to the world!' with a green leaf illustration.

6. On it’s way!

Each card is tucked into a plastic-free EcoEnclose mailer, ready to travel safely without unnecessary waste.

7. In Your Hands

You add the magic — a handwritten message, a doodle, an inside joke meant just for someone you care about.

Person writing in a notebook with a smiling sun drawing on the page
An illustration of a recycling bin with a cheerful drawing of the sun on a card being placed into it.
A recycling bin filled with paper items including a grocery list, a note with a flower drawing, and an envelope.

8. Back to the Bin

When its job is done, the paper (hopefully) returns to the recycling bin.

9. Reborn again!

Those same fibers then go on to become something new yet again. Maybe: a notebook, a tag, or another card. The cycle continues!

Illustration of a notepad, a price tag, a postcard with a sun and water, and an envelope with a leaf, connected in a circular flow.
Close-up of a stack of plain white sheets of paper or cardstock.
Close-up of white textured foam corner edge of a product with a gray background.
Close-up of a white textured surface, possibly a piece of paper or cardboard, with some embossed or raised sections.

Paper Close-Ups

Recycled cardstock has real personality — little flecks from past lives, soft natural color, and a texture that feels like it was meant to be written on.

Check out these close-ups. Recycled doesn’t mean rough or flimsy. It means charmingly imperfect in a way that mass-produced paper just… isn’t.