Green Plastic
Posted by W2GCredit Cards Go Green
By Jacque
I received an email advertisement recently from Citi Cards promoting “Greener Banking for a Greener Environment”. It seems that Citi has partnered with The National Arbor Day Foundation in a program to promote paperless statements. The benefits? For every person who enrolls in “Paperless Statements” Citi will donate a tree to be planted “where needed most”.
What can one tree do? According to The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, one tree absorbs more than a ton of carbon over its lifetime. That same tree provides oxygen for up to four people in one day, claims the Tree Canada Foundation. The University of Washington College of Forest Resources says that trees can reduce heating and cooling costs on a typical home by up to 12%. The U.S. Department of Agriculture tells us that the net cooling effect of one tree, on the environment, is equivalent to ten air conditioners operating at 20 hours per day.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not promoting consumerism via credit card purchases. I understand that our habits of consuming need to be reformed, if we are to combat the negative effects of product packaging and distribution on our environment. Conversely, for some who are looking for an easy way to take a positive step, changing to paperless statements is a great option. It is nice to see a credit card company take it one step further. Kudos Citi.
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I wonder if this is more of a marketing pitch than anything. I put most of my purchases on my credit cards every month to get the points (and I pay them off at the end of the month). My main card is a chase card and I have been able to go paperless for quite a while. It saves paper, yes, but it also cuts costs for the company in paper, printing and postage. Either way, it’s certainly a good thing to get the message out that this is even possible, because I’m sure a lot of consumers don’t know that it is.
A good thing to do as well is to avoid getting receipts at ATM’s and sign up for online banking. The amount of waste that is generated by ATM receipts is scary. If we could avoid using the paper for just that, think how many trees could be saved.
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