Global greetings card market has the same carbon footprint as over 200,000 round-the-world trips

Global greetings card market has the same carbon footprint as over 200,000 round-the-world trips

With around 6.5 billion greetings cards sent per year, the environmental cost has been worked out to show that the CO2 emissions produced by greetings cards and sending them is the equivalent of over 10 million hours of CO2 emissions produced by a plane flying.

Across the UK and the US, the average person buys around 30+ greetings cards per year, with the average Brit spending around £102 on cards and postage a year, with US card buyers spending slightly more.

TickleFluff have compiled data from varying different sources to see the true environmental cost of the greetings cards market. Some of the findings include:

• Around 6.5 billion greetings cards are purchased per year
• One tree can only make around 3000 greetings cards
• Each greetings card purchased and sent emits around 140g of CO2
• Annual greetings cards sales sit at around $7-8 billion, before postage
• Sending an email or ecard only equates to around 1.7% of the total energy usage of sending a greetings card

Based on the findings that 6.5 billion greetings cards are purchased per year and the average energy emissions are 140g of CO2 per card, this equates to 910 billion grams of carbon dioxide per year. To put that into perspective that is the same amount as:

• Over 10 million hours worth of flying of one passenger’s aircraft emissions
• 10.1 billion smartphones being used for a year
• Over 5.3 billion kilometres worth of travel in a petrol car

With energy consumption levels at all-time highs, individuals are taking greater care in understanding the environmental impact of day-to-day decisions they make, whether it be choices in more sustainable clothing, produce etc or ways to save energy. The rise in popularity in ecards presents an opportunity for people to be more conscious with not only their finances, but with their sustainability choices too, with sending an e-card equating to around only 1.7% of the total energy used to send a greetings card.

Editor notes:

TickleFluff are a new ecard business looking to formally launch this year, with a customised ecard subscription service allowing people to not only spend less on traditional greetings cards per year but also use a more environmentally-friendly service.

Data and information for this press release have been used from various sources, including:

Via Travelers, GreetingCard.org, Don't Send Me A Card, Local Gardener, Card Factory Investors, Brightly, Deloitte, Statista