We consuming Americans generate too much waste all year long, but this time of year it goes off the charts. We make endless trips to the mall in our SUVs, buy piles of stuff that was shipped from China, purchase rolls of brightly colored paper made from virgin treestock, wrap our gifts and top them with bows made of various plastics, and plop them under a feshly chopped down tree that we throw out in 4 weeks. All the while burning countless lights all around our homes. There are ways to make all these traditions a little greener-buy a smaller (or fake) tree, reuse bows, use raffia for ribbon, wrap in comics or other newspapers, carpool to the mall, even switch to LED lights. The one area that hasn’t gotten much greener is holiday cards.
I have a hard time with greeting cards. Like anyone else, I do enjoy getting a nice note on my birthday. This time of year is often the time I get that greeting from family and friends that we just didn’t manage to keep in touch with throughout the coming year. We get to see pictures of the new babies, or see how the nephews and nieces are growing up. Still, I have a problem with holiday cards-and I haven’t figured out the answer. Being the partner of a firm that specializes in sustainable design, it seems so ungreen to send out cards. There are a few sustainable options-soy inks and recycled paper-but they are costly and hard to find. If you have a card list like my in-laws, you would have to file for bankruptcy if you bought only these cards. Then there is always some leftover. What do you do with those? They get tucked in a drawer and thrown out in March. Who looks at their holiday cards repeatedly (or even once when you get that one from great aunt Sylvia that you met once when you were 8). It isn’t just the card-it is the envelope, the stamp, the shipping to get these cards to the store, to your house and ultimately to the end user.
The only thing that we have come up with is to send post cards. We make them ourselves, so the design is a little more personal. Besides, I haven’t seen any in the store-they are all big and pressed and come with foil lined envelopes. Ours have little or no waste as we make only what we use. They take less paper to make (small, one piece of paper, no envelope) and less energy to send. I don’t know how many greeting cards are sent every year, but some websites say as much as 7 billion. If everyone switched to postcards, that would mean 7 billion envelopes that wouldn’t be needed. The price of a stamp is 27 cents for a postcard-42 for an envelope. That is a savings by American households of 1 billion 50 million dollars every year. Imagine what could be done to plant trees install solar panels with over a billion dollars every year.
So, I won’t be offended if you don’t send me a greeting card this year. This could be your excuse to not sit hunched over the desk for four hours, signing cards until your fingers bleed, sending cards to people that you haven’t heard from in 11 1/2 months. Just say-I like you, I am just saving the planet!
