Get more mileage from your old business cards

It should come as no surprise that even the humble business card has not escaped the green movement. In the effort to make better use of our resources, many great minds have examined the life cycle of the common business card to see if there is room for improvement. It has been said that business cards should have new uses and innovative designs. Business cards should be multi-purposed marketing devices, not just pocket sized personal billboards. Much to our betterment, the effort to cultivate increased practical use of business cards has been a growing success. It is my unqualified privilege to share with you some of the ideas that people have come up with to make practical use of business cards which may have otherwise lost their usefulness.

• They're great for making a quick list for a small shopping trip because they slip easily into your pocket but don't scrunch up like a regular paper note does.
• They are ideal for entering drawings for door prizes and such.
• Use them for putting personal notes in the lunch bag of someone you love.
• They make pretty good luggage tags.
• Clean the spaces between your keyboard keys. (The sticky end of a used post-it note works good for this also.)
• Use some to identify your CD cases.
• A business card makes a pretty good toothpick in a pinch.
• One fellow said he gives them to girls he hooked up with so they'll email him.
• You can use them by the telephone to jot quick notes on.

These are just a few of the ideas that people have come up with to use old and obsolete business cards. It's not a world changing concept, but it's a start. Remember, any time you can find an alternate use for something that might have gone straight to the landfill, you again validate the manufacturing processes which created the item. What alternate uses have you found for your obsolete business cards? We'd love to hear about them!