Thats just disheartening to hear. After getting hooked into designing playing cards, I must say I have a different perspective now.
Its more of an art form and something you should treasure.
Maybe i'll even start my hobby collecting playing cards 
Well, there's a reason why our category of collecting is categorized as "ephemera". By definition, it means "things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time" and "items of collectible memorabilia, typically written or printed ones, that were originally expected to have only short-term usefulness or popularity."
Despite all the bells and whistles put into a pack of cards, they're not meant to last forever. Think of how many parents back in 1938 cleaned their children's rooms and tossed away copies of "Action Comics #1", which is now the world's most valuable comic book. An "excellent"-graded copy sold, according to articles dated 25 Aug. 2014, for $3,200,000 on eBay. It's so valuable not just for the first appearance of Superman, but also because it's incredibly rare, with I think fewer than ten copies known to exist today. It, too, was never meant to last this long, but that handful of copies did survive.
Most playing cards are used up, dirtied, food-stained, written-on, torn and, when I was younger, placed in the spokes of bicycle wheels. Funny how one bike can destroy a pack of Bikes! Anything left after all of that ended up in the trash.
Point of trivia: "ephemera" is a plural noun, the singular version being "ephemeron".
