Green' gift cards are in great demand

As per information available from International Card Manufacturers Association in the year 2012, the worldwide card industry’s production was 33 billion cards. Most of those produced cards contained polyvinyl chloride. Polyvinyl chloride contains pollutants which are injurious to the environment and are very slow in decomposing process. Previous year, during the holiday season the company Whole Foods initiated a gift card which was made with wood procured from sustainably supervised forests of Europe.

Vice president of division biopolymers in company Metabolix Mr. Bob Engle, a Massachusetts company said that retail vendors get value by marketing themselves as “Environment friendly” by means of recycling and other programs. Metabolix Company produces a Bioplastic substitute to the plastic which is usually used in these cards.

However alternative cards have inadequacies. In 2007, Target Company started using cards made up of a biodegradable substance produced by Metabolix but later they terminated the contract because of the high cost of production. 

Even though the price of a pound of polyvinyl chloride is little more than $1 but Metabolix’s alternative material costs more or less $2. And 1 wooden card made out of Sustainable Cards amounts between 10 to 15 cents, in comparison with 7 to 12 cents for plastic cards if ordered for 100,000 pieces at a time.