I have announced long ago (12 years ago) that the environmental movement was dead.
But if it were alive and it were intelligent it would be wildly
enthusiastic about gift cards.
Gift cards are the fastest growing segment of all retailing. A gift card is a credit card of a designated amount for a specific business use or for general purpose use.
The reason gift cards are environmentally positive is (1) that they avoid the great waste of gift wrapping because gift card recipients use the cards generally without getting gift wrapping. (2) Far fewer objects end up in waste dumps because people buy gifts that they want with a gift card as opposed to the many they receive but don't want. Also (3) many more card recipients buy services rather than objects because services are more commonly tailored to the buyer than objects.