The Problem
We usually have dinner on Friday at our local deli and stay till late. I had noticed an employee giving his boss an envelope at the end of his shift. Apparently every employee gave the manager an envelope at the end of every shift. It is always a fresh new envelope with the waiters’ name, date and time on it. My friends and I agreed that this was a colossal waste of paper. We discussed reusing the envelope or buying Multiuse manila envelopes, but since the envelopes had cash in them, they were skeptical. We decided to refurbish the envelopes instead
Our Plan
We collected envelopes from our community and the above mentioned deli. We promised that for every 3 envelops they gave us, we would give them 1 refurbished envelope.
We then collected and sorted all the envelopes and graded them (A through E) according to degree of wear.
A) Sure – easy to refurbish
B) Reuse – It will require some work, but we can do it
C) Challenge – We will have to use some imagination
D) Reinvent – we think of another way to use this envelope
E) Recycle – the envelope is in bad shape (oil stained, torn, beyond repair) and will have to be recycled
