(This thread is NOT about the latest troubles the Postal Service is having. Please start a new topic if you want to discuss that.)
Another Christmas is gone and the cards I’ve received go into the recycling bin. Which makes me wonder how many thousands of tons of paper go into Christmas cards every year. And whether it would be ecologically better to revive and promote the custom of sending Christmas postcards. (If you don’t know what I mean, do a web search on “vintage Christmas postcards”.)
Yes - ecards are an option for some people. And I know that some people like to enclose a note in the envelope bringing everyone up to date on the family events of the year. But for the rest of us, do we really need an envelope and card to send a simple greeting that will soon be discarded?
I have no argument with that proposal but it reminds me of something I’ve often found strange. People will put a generic Christmas greeting in an envelope to hide the message from prying eyes, but, more often than not, a custom-made greeting with the whole family’s faces on it (minors and all),is sent as an unenclosed postcard. Sometimes a return address is even included so interested strangers know we’re to stalk the cute kid dressed as an elf.
Christmas cards are 0.000000000001% of the paper waste. US paper consumption has actually increased annually, since the days of daily newspapers and printed invoices.
Every Rx has 7 sheets off warnings stapled to it… My apartment lease is too thick to fold. My 4-line electric bill is on four sheets, printed one side only.
When a cup leaves a ring on the counter, it takes a whole Brawny to wipe it up. TP shortages were a national apocalypse.
Entire skylines of buildings have erupted to accommodate workers filing photocopies that will never be looked at, thanks to government regulations and judicial proofs.
I haven’t spent a cent on anything made of paper in decades. . Blank backs of junk mail for printer or note paper. Launderable napkins and towels. No Christmas cards.
Thank you, and I agree about the other sources of waste. But maybe, just maybe, starting with Christmas cards WOULD be relatively painless and WOULD get people thinking about other things they could do to conserve paper.