Paper and Plastic With That?

Plastic-lid boxes are already lining the holiday aisles at our local stores,
with hundreds of paper Christmas greetings to choose from.

But, the 150-year old tradition of Christmas cards just got harder.
According to an article published by USA Today, the “blanket” Christmas card
no longer suffices, as it does not allow for personalization.

Now imagine sending out a small number, like 100 different cards to 100
different people, on top of the shopping that is required for those who are
getting gifts and to make sure Santa has everything on the list.

And now imagine personalizing each card, from the type of card to the
message inside, for each of those 100 people on your list. This small task
just got daunting, didn’t it?!

According to Hallmark, 2 billion paper cards will be sent this Christmas!
Now that is a heck of a lot of trees, wouldn’t you agree?

Other environmentally damaging manufacturing practices are used in
generating paper greetings, and that includes toxic printer inks. There is
also energy being used and pollution generated to produce, deliver, sale and
re-deliver these cards.

So where do electronic greetings fit in? For those who would like to save a
few thousand trees, provide that personal greeting and create a
self-maintained address book/checklist, online greetings are a great option.

In the USA Today article, Jamie Shaw, who lives in Utah and Rio de Janeiro,
says she couldn't keep track of all her friends' addresses to send each a
physical card, and with electronic cards she can customize different e-cards
for different recipients.

So what happens when you receive a paper greeting? Well, if you aren’t a
pack rat, then we recommend that if there is a mixed-paper recycling program
near you, you can just put your old greeting cards in with those old
newspapers and magazines, and join the force of online greetings.