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If you’re set on sending cards (and don’t feel bad, it’s one of my favorite holiday traditions), here are some additional tips for selecting eco-friendly Christmas and holiday cards: General tips for picking out eco-friendly Christmas cards Both options are going to have an impact, so pick the one that fits your resources the best, and go from there. You could sit around for a few hours calculating if physical cards or e-cards are better for your eco-friendly holiday card needs, but honestly, don’t waste your mental energy. Five such messages are like burning about 120 grammes (0.27 pounds) of coal” ( source). However, we can look at an average “email with a large attachment, which puts about 50 gCO2e into the air. The exact amount of CO2 a single email emits varies widely depending on a number of factors. This is a good example of the rebound effect – a low-carbon technology resulting in higher-carbon living simply because we use it more.“ That looks like a carbon saving unless you end up sending 60 times more emails than the number of letters you would have posted in days gone by. This number is for conventional cards – with no “eco” modifications.Īccording to The Guardian: “The average email has just one-sixtieth the footprint of a letter, according to a back-of-the-envelope comparison.

When it comes to purchasing and mailing physical paper cards, the average amount of CO2 emissions per person is 5kg, or 11 lbs ( source). This is a good example of the rebound effect – a low-carbon technology resulting in higher-carbon living simply because we use it more.”

“The average email has just one-sixtieth the footprint of a letter, according to a back-of-the-envelope comparison. The carbon footprint of an e-card vs a physical card But know that even ecards have a carbon footprint. But they can be – especially if you’re opting for eco-friendly cards made of recycled materials, or e-cards. We kind of answered that question above, and like most things in the sustainability realm, the answer is not clear cut. Is it environmentally (eco) friendly to send Christmas/holiday cards? I won’t get into the fact that we need trees, because I’m guessing you know that.Īll of this to say: yes, cards can be a large source of paper (trees), but there are ways to partake in card-sending traditions and stay eco-friendly.ħ What do I do with old Christmas/holiday cards? And when we circle back to the fact that much of that paper comes from trees (vs recycled paper), it gets overwhelming. I realize this doesn’t translate to holiday cards specifically, but the point is, Americans throw away a lot of paper. The EPA estimates that of the 250 million tons of municipal solid waste generated in the United States, 31% of that was paper. I want to break this down a little more, so bear with me. According to the UK Greeting Card Association, 1 billion Christmas cards were sold in the UK in 2017.Īccording to the USPS, average card costs range between $2 – $4, which means that Americans spend a lot of money on cards – many of which not only use virgin materials (trees), but also end up in the landfill. And since that stat is coming from one of the most well-known card companies, I believe it. And no, we’re not talking the eco-friendly-holiday-card-types yet.įor those in the UK, you’re not off the hook.

According to Hallmark, 1.3 billion holiday cards sent EACH YEAR in the US.