“Green” Christmas Cards: Good For The Planet, Great For Giving
A few years ago, I stopped mailing Christmas cards and started sending out a Christmas email instead. Sure, it’s not the same–and some may even say my way is impersonal. But I just couldn’t continue to waste trees because of tradition.
Luckily, now that more people are eco-savvy, there are plenty of card options made on recycled paper.
What To Look For
Check labels for a high percentage of post-consumer waste (ideally, 100 percent PCW), which ensures that the product was made from recycled paper that would otherwise have found its way to a landfill.
Buying recycled and tree-free greeting cards helps preserves virgin timber resources along with the energy used to harvest them, as well as removes greeting cards from the solid waste stream, saving landfill space.
In addition, cards made with soy-based inks that are chlorine-free (look for the Processed Chlorine Free (PCF) label), carry a much lighter environmental load.
Tree-free greetings cards
Materials such as kenaf, hemp, jute, and flax, as well as residues from agricultural crops such as sugar cane husk and the straws left over from wheat, rye, oats, rice, and barley, are all being put to good use in the greeting card industry these days.
Hallmark
Hallmark offers 13 holiday boxed card designs that have less impact on the environment. These boxed cards are printed on recycled or alternative papers, use fewer materials in packaging, and are recyclable. In addition, the entire Shoebox holiday boxed card line of 12 designs uses recycled paper.
In 2008, Hallmark also developed a “green” icon with four arrows revolving around the Hallmark crown. The arrows represent the four areas of Hallmark’s environmental efforts – water, waste, paper and energy. In mid-2008, the Hallmark “green” icon started appearing on greeting cards and other product lines. Products made with paper from sustainably managed forests, recycled paper content, or other eco-friendly materials will bear this special icon, along with relevant labeling.
Other new eco-friendly Hallmark holiday options include convenient packs of five cards for $5 and three designs (18 each) of holiday postcards for $7.99 with little or no packaging.
The entire line of Hallmark holiday boxed cards has eliminated packaging components and reduced packaging sizes, which lowers the total amount of raw materials used by nearly 25 percent. Card boxes are printed on environmentally friendly ivory-printed paper stock, which can be recycled. In addition, some cards are sold in cigar-box style boxes, and other designs feature a lidded box with a replica of the actual card design shown on the lid. These packaging styles can be reused as a keepsake for the purchaser or as a gift box.
Hallmark Business Expressions, the business-to-business division of Hallmark Cards, Inc., also offers a collection of environmentally-friendly holiday business greeting cards printed on paper made from 50 percent sugar cane pulp and 50 percent recycled paper.
Looking for a Hallmark near you? Click here to find a store.
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