News / Emotional Xmas card recycling
AN ESTIMATED 45,000 unwanted Christmas cards from Shetland are being sent to Aberdeen this week for recycling as part of a campaign launched earlier this month by two local sisters.
Shetlanders have been handing in cards to around 15 collection points all across the isles in support of the grassroots project.
Among those donating was a woman who had kept all of her Christmas cards from the last 70 years, with thousands of cards coming from her alone.
The scheme was organised by Sharon Deyell and Rachel Robinson, who were disappointed to learn that the Woodland Trust’s annual card recycling project did not stretch to Shetland.
They launched collection points across the length and breadth of the isles and Sharon said she was delighted – and surprised – with the number of cards donated.
Haulage firm Northwards are sending the cards free of charge on Thursday night’s southbound boat to a Marks and Spencer store in Aberdeen, which is one of many across the UK taking in donations.
“Originally we thought we might just get a couple of bags of Christmas them and that we’d post them down,” Sharon said.
“A lot of people probably dumped theirs by the time we announced we were collecting them, so we probably would have had more.”
The elderly woman who donated cards, which had been kept for decades didn’t want to be named, but Sharon said it was quite an “emotional” experience taking the cards from her.
“She asked me to come and pick up her cards. When she started speaking she told me she had collected every Christmas card she had received from about 1940.
“I think for her Christmas cards is what makes it Christmas, but she had decided that the time had come that she had to get rid of them. It was a very big thing for her.
“She kept the really older ones because she wants her family to see them. The ones from about 1970 have gone for recycling.”
Sharon also paid tribute to children from Nesting Primary School, who also helped collecting Christmas cards.
For every 1,000 cards received by Marks and Spencer stores in the UK, the retailer will pay for a tree to be planted by the Woodland Trust.
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