Die, holiday card - die, die, die!
Here was the environmental footprint of the Christmas card in 2005, according to the UK government:
One billion Christmas cards, weighing 20,000 tonnes and equivalent in volume to at least 20 Olympic sized swimming pools, will end up as waste this Christmas.
That's only the tip of the (rapidly melting) iceberg. Consider the energy involved in transporting those cards to a billion addresses – energy expended all the more inefficiently because postal services have to ramp up each year for a huge surge in mail, and then ramp back down again.
There are so many alternatives to cards, from phone calls to email, that you have to wonder: isn't it time for this tradition to die a quiet, dignified death?
Some people will object that all that needs to die is the obligatory greeting card, that huge bulk of cards that individuals and (especially) businesses send just to be polite. But it's hard to see how that can happen without the whole tradition taking at least a several-year-long sabbatical.
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And thinking about all that
And thinking about all that energy spent on delivery - I have a similar concern about this www.netflix.com thing. Am I really that lazy that I have to have movies mailed to me? I can't walk my lazy ass down to Blockbuster for cryin out loud? I must admit I hadn't really considered the postal system as a target for some major energy-wasting reduction efforts. I wonder who has?
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I wonder about that, too.
I wonder about that, too. But is the comparison with people who walk to Blockbuster (or their wonderful local independent video store - shout out to DVDnite and Limelight in Kits), or folks who head there in the minivan? (cue jolt of self-recognition)
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Wow Rob, you raise an
Wow Rob, you raise an excellent point.
For the past two years, the company I work for has sent digital Xmas cards, and then donates to charity the money they would have spent on cards. People lap it up.
And with such great ecards like these Hoops & Yoyo by Hallmark (EnviroWoman's all-time fav cartoon characters), why don't we all send digital cards?
Jingly Xmas 12 sounds of Xmas It's a Wonderful e-card
EnviroWoman
Plastic free. Cruelty free. Vegetarian. Chocoholic