The Envelope; an unnecessary single-use paper waste?

The History of Envelopes 

The first similar device is thought to be traced back to around 3200BC in the Middle East where clay was used to exchange financial tokens. The paper envelope was thought to have been developed in China sometime after the 2nd Century BC. Envelopes were then widely made by hand and sealed manually to secure the contents. However, here in the UK, inventor George Wilson was granted the patent for an envelope cutting machine in 1840, and fellow entrepreneurs, Edwin Hill and Warren De La Rue, were granted a British patent for the first envelope-folding machine five years later. 

Now, most of the over 400 billion envelopes of all sizes made worldwide are machine-made (wikipedia) 

Staista Research Department reports that in 2022, UK manufacturers sold approximately £217.2 million worth of envelopes, including wage slips. 

Envelopes within the Greetings Card industry 

It was with this introduction of penny postage and envelopes in England in 1840, that the greetings card industry as we know it today was born. Initially with the exchange of valentines, and then the use of lace paper, delicately ornamented, became popular. 

In 1843 the first Christmas Card was recorded, designed by John Calcott Horsley for his friend Sir Henry Cole. And by the 1860’s greetings cards were being commercially produced in England, quickly followed by embossed or lithographed letter sheets and envelopes in multiple colours with matching cards. 

Moving swiftly to today, and according to the Greeting Card Association a total of 708 million individual greetings cards were bought in the UK in 2020, with people spending an enormous £1.4 billion and each of these cards would have been sold with a separate envelope! 

So what’s the problem? 

The Biggest Problem – Our World 

Check out this website: Paper Waste Facts It contains a counter that shows in real time the tonnes of paper being currently produced in the world right now and the hectares of forests cut down or burned globally this year. It’s staggering! 

(https://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/paper-waste-facts)

From 2001 to 2019, a total of 386 million hectares of forest were lost globally (in all forest types combined). This loss represents an almost 10 % decrease in tree cover since 2000. In the case of paper, it also involves cutting down trees. Deforestation is one of the main environmental problems we’re facing in these times. 42% of all global wood harvest is used to make paper.  

Is it really worth it to cut down our life saving trees for this product? 

The Medium Problem – Unnecessary Waste and the link to Cellophane Wrap

The choice of greetings cards currently available to buy is astonishing. The market is flooded with options and over a thousand manufacturers are constantly changing designs, colours and shapes of these cards in order to capture the consumer interest. 

And each of these shapes needs a different shaped envelope. 

In retail shops, this causes a little known about problem unless you are in the industry. When you buy a greetings card, you obviously want to get the correct sized envelope to go with is, but often the card and envelope become detached – some get lost and some even get stolen. Retailers are constantly asking publishers to send additional envelopes so that they can ensure cards are sold with the corresponding envelope size. 

One such solution to this problem was to wrap the card and envelope in cellophane wrapping to keep them together! But plastic pollution and waste is a different blog for another time and one that everyone in the greetings card industry is trying hard to resolve. 

So... what do we do with the envelope once the card has been delivered? Throw it away – hopefully into the recycling bin. However, I wonder whether this happens as much as we would hope it does. What about the parties thrown at different venues? Are envelopes always recycled there? The cards that are opened in hotels on special occasion – do we always assume that they will be responsibly disposed of? 

The Little Problems – just saying! 

• Since Covid we’ve all been more aware of the spread of germs – is licking an envelope really the best way of sending a card? 

In Conclusion 

If there’s an alternative to the envelope as a means of delivering a greetings card, then surely now is the right time to explore it. Just because it’s the way that it has always been done, doesn’t mean that it’s the best way.