Welcome back to the 12 Days of Sustainability – Day 12 Holiday E-Cards
We send enough Christmas cards that if we placed them alongside each other, they’d cover the world’s circumference 500 times!
Holiday e-cards not only save money, but reduce waste! They offer a keepsake that won’t end up in the trash later on while also reducing emissions and air pollution, as well as save time.
But how much of a difference are we making by switching from print to digital this holiday season? Let’s dive in!
Deforestation
Thousands of trees are cut down annually to create paper products such as Christmas cards.
According to Local Gardener: “The UK sends around 1 billion Christmas cards yearly. It takes one tree to make roughly 3000 standard cards. That means over 300,000 trees a year can be cut down to make cards over the holidays.”
Tragically, not all paper production companies have well-meaning intentions to replace the trees that have been felled. This leads to large areas of the rainforest and natural habitats being destroyed and never replaced.
Postage + Delivery Emissions
Whether you post a batch of 200 Christmas cards or just one, there is still an environmental cost. The sheer volume of emissions created by the trucks, vans and planes that play a part in their delivery contribute to the overall carbon footprint of Christmas cards.
According to Brightly. eco, a study by Exeter University found that sending one card produces about 140 grams (0.3086472 pounds) of carbon dioxide. They also found that the U.S. mails around 1.3 billion holiday cards annually—the same CO2 emissions as charging 22 billion smartphones or 22,000 homes’ energy use for one year!
Foil, glitter or plastic components are impossible to recycle or compost
Non-biodegradable Christmas cards end up in landfill sites where they can remain for many years. When the plastic finally breaks down, microplastic traces are left behind in the soil, which means that the plastics are never truly removed.
What are some of your favorite ways to #gogreen and benefit our environment during the holidays?
