iCARD Systems Introduces a 'Green' Gift Card That is Great for Personal Gifts and Employee Incentives

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., July 23 /PRNewswire/ -- iCARD Systems, a 12-year prepaid card industry innovator, is now providing an environmentally friendly gift card solution at its Web site, http://green.clickit.icardgiftcard.com. This new gift card solution is entirely paperless, plastic-free, and carbon neutral.

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According to an April 2010 article in Plenty Magazine, a leading resource for sustainable living, plastic gift cards account for 75 million pounds of discarded Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) each year. The article also said that EPA studies show that exposure to PVC puts people at increased risk of liver damage, reproductive and developmental health problems, and cancer. Other toxins in gift cards include chlorine residue and heavy metal pollutants.

The Green iCARD Gift Card is an emailable gift card, redeemed online for digital gift cards from more than 50 popular online retailers including Macy's, Barnes & Noble, Overstock, Zappos, Sephora, Dick's Sporting Goods and many more. Digital gift cards are typically a 19-digit code and four-digit PIN that the recipient can use online when completing their purchase online. Some retailers may also allow the codes to be used in physical stores.

Manufacturing plastic gift cards wastes valuable resources and causes destructive gases to be emitted. After production, these plastic cards must be packaged, shipped, stored, likely reshipped, re-stored, displayed, sold, and then possibly wrapped, packaged, and shipped again; A massive carbon footprint left behind by a little 1/4 ounce card. And it is thrown away after it is used!

"iCARD's latest gifting product is entirely electronic," said Eric Strautman, iCARD's marketing and communications manager. "You email a card with a value of $25, $50, $75 or $100, along with a personalized note, and the recipient is able to redeem the value for the digital gift card of their choice."

In addition to personal gifts for birthdays, anniversaries and holidays, gift cards are popular tools for employee recognition programs, sales incentives, product rebates, customer satisfaction concessions, customer retention, customer referrals, and sales channel programs.

"Our eco-friendly gift card," said iCARD Founder Jeff Ehney, "is a nice complement to our other product lines, which include reloadable and single-load prepaid Visa cards, and our iCARD Gift Card; an emailable and print-on-demand gift card that lets the recipient choose gift cards from 170+ available merchants.

About iCARD Systems

Founded in 1998, iCARD is a pioneer in the development of network-branded prepaid cards and was one of the first to offer Visa® Gift Cards online. Today, iCARD is a leading provider of prepaid cards, bulk merchant gift cards, digital gift cards, emailable gift cards and print-on-demand gift cards, for corporate incentives, promotions and rebates. iCARD is an Independent Sales Organization for the Bancorp Bank and is a Hallmark Cards licensee. Its channel partners include American Greetings and AOL. Learn more at http://www.icardsystems.com. Or, order gift cards online at http://www.icardgiftcard.com.

SOURCE iCARD Systems