When ordering business cards for the blog, we were happy to learn about a new alternative to business card paper. We found business cards made entirely out of 100% cotton scraps discarded by fashion companies.
“The world loves T-shirts. But the process of making them creates a lot of leftover fabric. So we decided to put those scraps to good use and make Cotton. Our first tree-free paper.”
The company MOO.com is offering a new line aptly called “Cotton Business Cards” that are made from 100% cotton t-shirt scraps (a.ka. leftover fashion industry waste).
According to MOO’s website, “The world loves T-shirts. But the process of making them creates a lot of leftover fabric. So we decided to put those scraps to good use and make Cotton. Our first tree-free paper.”
We ordered these cards, and they look beautiful.
Since they are made from white t-shirt scraps (not used or recycled t-shirts) they are bright white and feel great to the touch.
Check out the photos below of our new cotton cards made by MOO.
Why care about business card materials?
One reason we like this initiative is that MOO has created a tree-free paper, so definite points for saving the environment.
But perhaps an even more compelling reason - they are using materials that otherwise would have ended up in a landfill, degrading over time.
More than 15 million tons of used textile waste is generated each year in the United States, and the amount has doubled over the last 20 years, due to the rise of fast fashion.
The average “life” of a piece of fabric is 3 years.
Besides the problem of clothes taking up massive space in landfills, there’s an even more disturbing issue at hand: As fashion waste decomposes, it creates dangerous gasses and toxins.
If you’re interested in learning more about fashion waste and it’s surrounding issues as well as positive initiatives, I recommend reading a few of these helpful articles:
- Why You Should NEVER Throw Old Clothes In The Trash
- Fast Fashion is Creating an Environmental Crisis
- 10 Fashion Brands Innovating with Waste
Which Fashion Company is Supplying MOO with Scraps?
While this cotton card offering is a benevolent undertaking from Moo, we were curious to know more about the process, so we contacted them to inquire about the fashion companies they are collaborating with for the scraps.
Unfortunately, the customer service team did not have any information about the fashion companies supplying them with scraps. I received the following response:
“Sadly I do not have the information about who is collaborating with us for our scraps.”
We hope to obtain more information on their fashion partners in the future, and will update this post if we do.
What makes cotton cards “Green”?
When I asked more details about MOO's cotton cards, they direct me to their support page that describes what makes their cotton offering “green.”
Here are the details, direct from the site:
- Their cotton paper is “made entirely of white cotton T-shirt offcuts, the fabric leftover from when a T-shirt pattern is cut from a roll of fabric”
- They “take the offcuts from U.S. T-shirt manufacturers, all from cotton grown in America”
- “The paper is naturally bright white and does not require bleaching or chemical processing”
Rating: 4/5
Overall, I give these cards a 4/5 rating. The quality of the cards is wonderful, and we love that MOO offers so many templates for you to start from when creating cards. They also let you upload custom designs.
Additionally, I have always appreciated one specific feature of MOO: The company allows you to use as many different images for the backs of your cards as you desire. You end up with a beautiful pack of custom cards with many different designs.
When I created these cards, I knew I wanted to use images from our blog as well as our logo. I was able to start from a basic template and create these quickly and easily on their website.
We’re so excited to use them. We can absolutely get behind these cards that are American made and require no chemical processing.
The only reason for the 4/5 rating is because we’d like more transparency. What clothing outfitters are you working with, MOO?
Watch MOO's Video to Learn More About Their Cotton Business Cards:
Have you found any alternatives to traditional paper for business cards, postcards, etc? Where do you order your business cards from? Leave us a note below.