Gift Cards Are Not Green

I went shopping on December 26th and I learned a very valuable lesson - and it was not that I should not go shopping on the day after Christmas, although that was a lesson in itself.

What I learned is, gift cards are not green.

I went to Wal*Mart.
I used my gift card. I was asked if I wanted to keep it or if I wanted to trash it. I asked if I could reload it, which I was told I could not. So I asked, "well, what do you guys do with them, recycle them or something?"Image by Getty Images via Daylife to which the clerk just stared slightly confused and finally she answered, "naw, we just throw them in the trash hon'."
Are you serious? All of those plastic gift cards that people give back to Wal*Mart and they don't even reload them?? (Okay, later I found out some are re-loadable, but not others) And they don't even recycle all of the ones they get back? They just toss them? Craziness I say!
This must just be Wal*Mart and more of their crappy practices, it couldn't apply to everywhere!



Or could it?

I went to Starbucks.
My husband had given me a $5.00 gift card - and I won't even get into how he thought $5.00 would be enough to suffice for me - so back to the card.
I bought my tall, green tea latte and handed my gift card over to pay and it was recieved with a, "Would you like to reload this?" Well, of course I did! Just not with my money, so, I guess the answer was really a "no". But before I let the answer slide I had to find out so I asked, "what do you do with the card if I don't reload it?" and the reply? "throw it away". Seriously? Even Starbucks? You know, the Starbucks that advertize that they make their cups out of 10% post recycled consumer something-or-other??

This really must be just a weird, tear in the universe, kind of thing - how could this go unnoticed? I mean, do you realize how many gift cards are bought and used and thrown away every year? I don't know either, but I bet it's a lot!

I'm on a mission. I'm going to write letters. I'm going to recruit friends and family and urge them to complain. I mean couldn't these cards be used for something else? I keep my cards now and I let my son play with this as his "credit cards" but now I'm just teaching him to rack up credit card debt, so I will make this a mission to have someone change this "toss the gift cards" oversite that so many businesses are using!

So, join me in my mission!! Write Wal*Mart and Starbucks and explain to them about how wasteful they are being and how they could better use their resources and recycle their gift cards!