With development touch due to environmental issues, it has emerge as leading for disdain coupon companies to introduce an effort to reduce waste and inefficiency. Coupon books are often a hit-or-miss endeavor and all of those unused coupons add up to mounds and mounds of junk mail, which is an immense strain on the environment, claiming over 100 million trees to produce coupon books, flyers and advertisements. By the year 2010, paper and paperboard waste-such as unwanted coupon books-are predicted to make up about 48% of the solid mass that makes up our landfills.

Paper itself is almost becoming obsolete. Think of how fewer and fewer people are writing checks and instead making the switch to check cards or debit cards. With the technology we have, paper coupons seem impractical too. Enter: The Max Card. A new kind of discount card.

The Max Card is a discount card that takes the place of ungainly and wasteful paper coupon books the way debit cards have replaced checks. Instead of sifting through papers and clipping coupons, a Max Card member needs only to show his card at the point-of-sale to receive the discount.

To find one of the 190,000 retailers that honor the Max Card, a member need only to check online or look for a logo at the storefront. Max Card members can also shop online for exclusive deals from all the big brands and can use the card abroad at one of the thousands of worldwide retailers-including over 20,000 hotels-that offer discounts with the Max Card.

The Max Card's $54.95 (currently discounted to $39.95) annual fee is negligible when one considers how quickly the card pays for itself. Once a member signs up, they are given a personalized Max Card that provides them with discounts at the local, national and international level. And unlike a coupon that is gone once you use it up, Max Card discounts are ongoing, meaning a member can go back to a merchant again and again for the same deal.

The Max Card is perfect for nearly any discount shopper. Anyone that currently uses a credit card for the rewards points will be much better off with a Max Card as there is no risk, the savings are instant and the discounts never expire. Consumer convenience couple with environmental friendliness makes the Max Card discount card a logical next step in the evolution of discount shopping.