Environmentally friendly seed packets

I always assumed that the best seed packet for the environment was one made of paper and filled with organic seeds. So imagine my surprise at receiving a bright yellow plastic seed packet from Seeds of Change, an organic company in New Mexico.

It appears that they may have been using this packaging for some time and I've missed it. (The link on the company's website no longer takes you to an explanation.)

I'd heard about packaging seeds as wedding favors. And there are seed tapes from tissue paper.

Does anyone sell garden seed packets made from recycled paper? Surely they do, but I couldn't find any that bragged about it online.

I'm assuming that the seed-buying method with the least impact on the environment is to buy in bulk at farm stores. Except that I don't often need that much seed anymore. And lots of people don't live near rural areas.

Despite all that, I'll admit to a guilty fondness for Park Seed's foil packets, which seem to keep the seeds fresh longer (when I forget to use them and they get pushed to the back of the garden bench for a year or two -- that never happens to you, right?).

Anyway, I was intrigued with the message of why a non-paper packet was better. Here's what it said:

"Less energy required to produce plastic and less waste from reuse of envelope."[Judy's note: That's assuming, of course, that the packet is reused]

"Equivalent to paper in landfill accumulation."

"Hermetically sealed to guarantee freshness for two years if unopened."  [Judy's note: which, in my case, would be an environmental benefit because it would prevent me from ordering a second packet after the first one was left out in the tall grass next to the garden overnight in the dew.]

"Resealable to keep leftover seed fresh."

I haven't looked into this deeper, but to me it's interesting.