Environmental Info

Paper production and consumption utilizes trees, energy, water, and other resources. It also creates waste. At Recycled Greeting Cards, our goal is to provide greeting cards that consume less resources and create less waste. Our 100% post-consumer recycled cards require about half the energy, half the water, and of course none of the trees required to make virgin paper. Compared to cards made from virgin paper, our cards also create far less greenhouse gases, volatile organic compounds, particulates and other air pollutants, and far less waterborne waste. Because our paper is processed chlorine free, it also doesn't produce dioxin (a carcinogen). Additionally, our printing facility uses 100% wind energy, and our cards are printed with water-based ink.

Here's more info about paper production and greeting cards:

• Americans purchase about 7 billion greeting cards every year. That equals about 140,000 tons of paper. Assuming that about 30% of greeting cards are recycled paper, that represents about 2.5 million trees cut down each year for greeting cards.
  
  
• Americans consume about 730 lbs./yr. of paper per capita.
  
  
• Americans use about 31.5 million tons of printing and writing paper every year.
  
  
• Paper production in the U.S. uses the equivalent of about 12 billion gallons of oil for its energy needs.
  
  
• The pulp and paper industry in the U.S. is 1st in comsumption of industrial process water, 3rd in the release of toxic chemicals, and 4th in the release of air pollutants that impair respiratory health.
  
  
• More than 90% of printing and writing paper in the U.S. is made with virgin tree fiber.
  
  
• Paper accounts for about 40% of municipal solid waste.
  
  
• Post-consumer paper is paper that has cycled through consumers, and is then processed to remove ink, then made into pulp and paper.
  
  
• Recycled paper that is not post-consumer is from pulp or paper that has been recovered prior to consumer use. It uses recovered pulp, as well as paper recovered from pre-consumer printers and converters.
  
  
• Trees are a renewable resource, but many forestry practices are not environmentally friendly or sustainable.
  
  
• Over 5 million tons of junk mail is sent to Americans every year.
  
  
• The U.S. Postal Service has a fleet of about 260,000 vehicles.
  
  
• Hallmark makes about half the greeting cards sold in the U.S., but only a little over half their cards contain a minimum of 10% post-consumer content.

Most of the information above is from the the Environmental Defense Fund's Paper Task Force Report [1, 2], Conservatree, Resource Conservation Alliance, and New American Dream. If you see any errors or if you have more information you think should be included, please contact us.

What you can do to reduce your impact from paper usage:

• Recycle our cards when you're done with them
  
  
• Recycle as much paper, magazines, paperboard, and cardboard as you can. If your area doesn't recycle all these things, get a program started.
  
  
• Reduce the amount of paper you use. Print double-sided, multiple pages to a sheet, or on the reverse side of already printed paper.
  
  
• Encourage your office to switch to 100% post-consumer printing paper.
  
  
• Encourage companies (magazines, catalogs, offices, greeting card companies) to use more post-consumer content in their papers.
  
  
• Encourage companies to reduce the amount of packaging they use.
  
  
• Reduce the amount of junk mail you receive. To get on a list to stop at least some junk mail, go to the Direct Marketing Association's off mailing list page (it costs $1, and doesn't eliminate all direct mail).
  
  
• Encourage paper mills to use more post-consumer content, work with sustainable forestry for the virgin pulp they do use, utilize renewable energy, and reduce waste.
  
  
• Ask the USPS to switch to more efficient vehicles.
  
  
• Ask your representatives to sponsor sustainable forestry initiatives, legislation that reduces energy consumption, and legislation that strengthens clean air and water standards