Recycling Plastic Gift Cards

I've been doing this for a few years now, but as you can see from my stash, I'm a little behind in mailing out my plastic cards for recycling.

I stumbled upon this company a while ago and began mailing small packages of gift cards. You can actually get several in a standard sized envelope before you go over the weight limit for the cheapest postage. Up until the point that I found this information, I had just been throwing them away...which is also what stores do when you allow them to keep an empty card.

Local recycling companies don't take this type of plastic. Today, I googled the generic "recycle plastic gift cards" and Earthworks is still the only company that comes up even after about four years.

So yes, it will cost me a few dollars to mail all of these out, or I can do them a few at a time, but I'll have the assurance of knowing that they are definitely going to be recycled. And before you ask, yes...the best way to reduce the amount of cards in landfills is to simply reload them. The problem with that is I purchase them solely because my Kroger store gives gas points and discounts per gallon of gas when I purchase gift cards. Over the years, we have saved hundreds of dollars on gasoline simply by budgeting our purchases through gift cards.

I also found another site on ideas for reusing empty cards. I didn't see anything I could personally use there, but if you're crafty...and evidently have better scissors than I do...she offers several possibilities.