Thank you so much to Claudia for writing this post for us. Claudia recently ordered her wedding tea towels with us and also works in the recycling industry.

Here, on National Recycling Week, Claudia hits us with some home truths about the PAPER INVITATIONS which we think might be kinder of the environment... we know we're all just trying to do our bit but I guess sometimes everything is just not as it seems.

Take it away Claudia...

Mum, Grandma, Auntie Brenda = pretty much the only people who end up keeping that really beautiful hot foiled / glittery / wax sealed wedding invitation you spent months stressing over and a small fortune paying for, the rest may sit for a while in that junk drawer that everyone has in their kitchen but sooner or later find themselves in the recycling box...which is great right, they're getting recycled so it's not so bad after all.

WRONG!

Working in the recycling industry part of my job entails arranging for what we put in our recycling boxes to be collected, segregated and sent into paper mills to be made into new products, hence my search for reusable, recyclable wedding invitations.

Dealing on a daily basis with paper mills all over the UK and Europe who buy our waste paper I spend hours liasing with angry mill site managers who have no option but to reject our trucks of paper because there is glittery, hot foiled and wax coated paper, all of which deem the material un-recyclable due to the fine layer of metal used in the hot foil process, the fractions of glitter and the consistency of the wax seals.

What in reality does happen is these 'contaminated' bales have to be sent for hand sorting where those lovely hot foiled, glittery, waxy invitations are picked out and plonked in the 'reject bin' or in other words 'land fill'.

So why did I choose a tea towel wedding invitation?

Finding wedding tea towels was perfect for me as now all our guests have a lovely tea towel that they can use time and time again. They were super easy to package and post in C5 large letter size boxes (which are recyclable) and everyone who received them commented on what a lovely, useful and unique idea they are. I have no doubt some will end up stained with Bolognese, chewed by the dog or used to dry off the car but in whatever state they end up they'll all have their use to everyone who received them.