Green Hobby: Ephemera Keeps Paper Out of the Landfill
This Converse College Historical Pageant program came from the contents of a discarded pile of papers left at the curbside to be taken to the landfill by ephemera's grim reaper, the garbage man. The most exciting and compelling aspect of ephemera is the thrill that comes from salvaging choice bits of vintage ephemera from an unweildy horde of trashed paper. When it comes to preservation, recycling, and repurposing, nothing pleases me more than sorting through mounds of flotsam to save a few choice mementos, collectibles, or genealogically important documents.
I'm a bit frustrated with my luck this year in regard to find fresh hordes. So far, I haven't happened upon any troves of paper. Yet everyday, I'm certain, countless piles of old papers are discarded all across the United States, sending one-of-a-kind documents to their unnecessary demise. It pains me to think about the wanton destruction of photographs, postcards, menus, labels, billheads
If you have the unfortunate duty of disposing of a deceased loved-one's horde of old paper, please contact an ephemera collector before you arbitrarily toss out a lifetime's worth of paper. If you're concerned about protecting "personal information," a professional ephemerist will take extreme measures to make certain that sensitive documents are segregated from the historically important papers that merit preservation.
Here a few other pieces saved from the landfill:
