is scrapbooking environmentally unfriendly?

I guess nearly everything we do is environmentally unfriendly in some way, so we can't go through life thinking of that all the time or we will just all stop living, can I can assure you with all this talk about global warming and such it will be the little people doing all the giving up for the enviroment, I say it is ok for the Governments of the world to get on the high powered jets to go talk about saving the world while staying in theit top class hotels with spas and all the other perks when they could hold a conference type call on the net and save energy, money, and a lot more...they will not give up a thing but they will decide on what we have to give up.... Lilaclady steps off her soapbox.:)

It's definitely environmentally unfriendly, but I'm not sure if scrapbookers are a bigger threat to the environment than kindergarten classes and their scribbles are.  ^_^

What I'd like to see more of is environmentally-friendly papers made with things other than tree fiber. Tree-Free Greetings of Keene, New Hampshire uses alternative sources of fiber like Kenaf, and their greeting cards and envelopes are wonderful. I love the texture of them--they feel smoother than normal paper to me. If scrapbooking materials made from similar fibers were readily available in my area, I'd definitely buy them, even if it did cost a bit more than regular papers. I'm also not opposed to reusing every scrap of paper I possibly can. There are so many nifty punches available that it's easy to use them to make small embellishments from scraps.

OMG another politically correct, ecofriendly attack on something that is simple, fun and crafty. Yep, I scrapbook, and actually I throw away very little, I use scrap pieces for other pages. Oh and I love the papers they have now, however, I didn't realize that eyelets, brads and such were made from trees, hmmm thought they were metal. Oh and yes, I am one of those 'horrible' people that actually have a non ecofriendly Christmas tree, aka real tree in my home. Oh and by the way, I work for the Forestry Service, so yeah I know about condervation, and woods, and wildland fires, but that's a whole other subject.

I do scrap booking myself and happen to love it. You have me thinking and it's true. I also feel at this time with me doing so much recycling. I can continue to do some scrap booking. The good thing is all that high priced paper stays on the shelf. I am very frugal and use my $1.00 stores for all I can.

In a way, you can say that scrapbooking is environmentally unfriendly because of the materials used, but in my country, this hobby hasn't really taken off in a big way yet unlike in US or Australia. But if you think about the how people over time have preserved their memorable moments, certainly the advent of digital photography have cut down on the use of photo paper for printing of photographs, because many people now store and share photographs in digital format than in printed format, and given that very many people now have turned to using digital cameras, there would be environmental savings in not printing out photos. Also some people have gone on to do electronic scrapbooking, so that's another environmental saving there. I'm now seeing more and more electronic scrapbooking sites, and I just enjoy all the creations.

Wow I never thought about that before! I am going to actually change the way I do my scrap booking thank you for pointing that out to me! One question thoe, can you recycle the parts of photos that have been cropped?

I am a 10 year vet scrapper. Things have gotten a lot less expensive these days. PEople are seeing you dont' have to pay those high prices. You can find supplies and embellishments all over hte house or other places. I have a blog about scrapbooking if you can to take a look - Scrapbook Layout Ideas. Link in my profile. But as for the paper - I think you are nit picking - yes it uses paper but so do coloring books - at least with the SB you have memories for generations to come. COloring books are just colored and tossed. Talk about wasteful. Or how about homework? Kids have ato write the assignment, turn it in, it is graded, given back and to the trash it goes. Or newspapers - you read them and they are tossed. Plus, if you are a true scrapper, you know that we don't waste an inch of paper. We use literally every inch of each sheet of paper. I'd say scrappers are the most frugal and waste consciouncious (sp?) people there are in the craft industry.

I'm a a scrapper and I give away/swap scrapbook embellishments for box tops for education labels to help my grand daughter's school fund raiser so nothing I have ever goes to waste. Box Tops 4 Education is a program Pillsbury and other big brands has to help schools. Scrapbook for Box Tops - link in my profile. So while I am not wasting scrapbook supplies and being frugal and non=wasteful, others are getting embellishments insteado f buying them and not throwing away so much paper from the products!

It is rather costly to invest in scrapbooks, isn't it. Personally, I would use recycle paper should I find myself indulging in such a hobby one day. Literally scraps for scraps. LOL.

I never really thought about scrapbooking as being envirnomentally unfriendly. I guess it could be like everything else in this world. But I use almost every last bit of everything. I cut apart the piece left from my pop dots and use them. I save all my scraps of paper. If the piece is so small that I don't feel like saving it, I recycle it along with areas I've cropped from any photos. I also give or trade my supplies with others. I even cut off old buttons from clothing that is no longer good.