The ecological impact of greeting cards and where to get their eco-friendly alternatives

Assorted Card Set by Twigs Paper

The days leading up to the new year with Hanukkah, Christmas, and more, are filled with festivities, presents, and fun. 

Gifts come with greeting cards, notes, ribbons, glitter, and holiday decorations. Most of these items are thrown out and can’t be recycled.

The greeting card itself is recyclable unless it is musical, and the add-ons are adding to the ecological problem of holiday waste.

Here’s where eco-friendly greeting cards can come to the rescue.

The ecological impact of greeting cards

According to the Greeting Card Association stats, a total of 6.5 billion greeting cards are purchased by Americans every year.

Sending one greeting card results in producing 140 grams (0.3086472 pounds) of carbon dioxide, per a study by Exeter University in the UK.

Around 1.3 billion holiday cards are mailed in the United States each year, resulting in the same CO2 emissions as powering 22,000 homes for a year or 22 billion mobile phones.

One billion Christmas cards are reportedly thrown away annually and it's estimated that 300,000 tons of card packaging are discarded just during the holiday season. 

Not to add that paper used to make generic greeting cards is often chemically processed and colored.

Greeting cards have been a part of our holiday tradition for a long time. They are fun and personal, and we get to share the magical gifting moment with our loved ones.

Discarded Christmas cards and gift-wrapping paper

So how to curb this waste problem around Holidays?

Eco-friendly greeting cards made by Twigs® Paper!

Twigs Paper is bringing sustainable stationery to the world on a much larger scale than we ever thought possible. 

They believe that sustainable products need to be more accessible, hence they’ve scaled by making their products accessible to all major e-commerce platforms apart from their website, as well as in 200 stores throughout the United States.

Christmas Assorted Card Set

Their eco-friendly greeting cards are creatively beautiful, made from recycled paper, and are also mailed in eco-friendly packaging.

Not just cards, but also their eco-friendly notebooks make a lovely holiday gift for everyone.

Here’s how Twigs Paper is making a difference

Shopping responsibly starts with ensuring that what you buy is environmentally friendly. You know precisely what you're receiving when you shop for eco-friendly greeting cards from Twigs.

PROCESS

They source certified recycled paper for all their products and print them with eco-friendly, non-toxic inks. Even their shipping orders are wrapped in post-consumer waste packaging.

Eco-friendly Greeting Card by Twigs Paper

MATERIALS USED

Paper: 

Twigs uses only 100% PCW paper that is FSC Certified. 

FSC certification assures that responsible forestry practices are implemented in the sourcing and production of products. 

Rather than using carbon or nuclear energy, Twigs Paper is made with biogas, the energy created by decomposing landfill trash that is absorbed and used at the paper mill. This cuts CO2 emissions by thousands of tonnes per year.

Printing: 

Traditional printing employs toxic inks including VOCs (volatile organic compounds).

However, Twigs Paper’s high-quality digital printers use water-based inks or other non-toxic inks to keep the air and water clean. This printing technology assures that their process is as sustainable as possible.

Printing technology

PRODUCTION

Eco-friendly Notebooks

Twigs Paper sources all its materials from within the United States and Canada. This enables them to consistently meet quality and sustainability goals.

The majority of Twigs products are printed in New York, and all purchases are sent from their New Jersey headquarters, enabling them to provide the finest quality eco-friendly greeting cards and notebooks to everyone.

SUSTAINABLE DELIVERY

Kraft Packaging by Twigs Paper

The company has adopted complete plastic-free practices and only uses 100% recycled with 90% PCW Kraft packaging for shipping.

The packaging of their eco-friendly greeting cards and notebooks is strong & sturdy and made entirely of post-consumer waste, which means it's 100% recyclable, biodegradable, and compostable. 

So you can feel good knowing that your purchase is eco-friendly and also contributes to trash reduction and environmental protection.

With their mission to “keep our planet healthy and habitable”, their sustainability measures travel into the community.

SENSE OF COMMUNITY

Their incredible community of artists that bring your eco-friendly greeting cards to life and their eco-conscious community inspired the team to go above and beyond in their eco-efforts.

Artists’ Community

You too can be a part of this community and share your art with millions of people on eco-friendly greeting cards and notebooks.

Just as greeting cards bring people together, their efforts unite the community.

Ultimately, greeting cards are not going anywhere soon.

But we can collectively make an effort to reduce our negative impact on the environment by investing in eco-friendly greeting cards.

Place your order for the holidays, and you get free shipping and 15% off on all orders this year with the code HOLIDAY15!

Or bookmark their website for all the events and special days in 2023!

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Author bio: Hi, I’m Mrudavi. I help sustainability-focused businesses generate high ROI through content marketing strategy and content writing.

You can find me on LinkedIn to collaborate.