It's almost Christmas, a time of the year when probably the highest proportion of stationary is used all around the world. It's a time of joy and happiness, a time when everyone gets together with their near and dear ones to celebrate the birth of Jesus and await the advent of a new year. It's a time when people sit back and relax after a long hard year to see it silently pass by.
As I said, it's the time when stationeries are probably used more than in any other time throughout the year. Greeting cards are sent in bulks to families, friends and colleagues. Gifts are exchanged and surely they need to be wrapped in proper attractive gift-wraps to make them appear just more than presentable.
Christmas today is more commercialized than it ever was. With new gifts and products coming up especially for the occasion, they need to be marketed more vigorously than other products at other times of the year. This requires the companies coming up with these products and services to rev-up the newsletters, periodicals and posters in order to boost their marketing strategy and get an edge over competition. New booklets and brochures are designed for the same purpose.
By the time Christmas is over everyone starts preparing for the New Year. A time to remember and bid adieu to all the good and bad things that marked the current year, and welcome with open hands, the beginning of something new. By this time, calendars for the New Year starts circulating and notepads and other office stationeries are replaced with newer ones.
Amidst all the joy and celebration, Christmas is probably the most wasteful time of the year. Piles of gift-wraps, ribbons, old stationeries and decorations fill up the lands. And this in turn, adds to the causes that could bring the entire mankind and the world we live in under great danger. All the printed materials, which are so abundantly used during this time and disbursed, require a lot of petroleum-based inks, laminates, varnishes, and adhesives for production. And these materials cause the printing houses to produce VOCs. VOCs or volatile organic compounds are organic chemical compounds that have a high vapor pressure under normal conditions and have the potential to vaporize and enter the atmosphere.
These VOCs in all forms are potentially harmful to the environment. When released into the atmosphere, they can actively damage soil and groundwater. Moreover, vapors of VOCs released into the atmosphere cause air pollution and this increases the risk of asthma attack and other health hazards.
But this does not mean that the only possible option to save mankind and earth is by giving up on Christmas. Nowadays, most of the printing houses are 'going green' in a bid to contribute towards the global cause of anti-pollution movement. Green printing is what most of the sensible minds behind the printing industry is adapting to. They are using advanced techniques and recyclable raw materials to conserve energy for the future of the planet. They keep track of their total energy usage and implement strategies for offsetting the environmental impact of their businesses. They are trying to minimize the consumption of electricity and use papers only from companies certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) as it proclaims that the paper comes from well-managed forests that adhere to strict environmental standards.
With the option of green printing on our hands, it's time celebrate Christmas in a new way-a Christmas without worries and guilt of causing harm to mankind and the planet, a Christmas that's all celebrations!
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