Not only is junk mail a complete annoyance, it’s bad for the environment too. Why should we sacrifice our precious trees, energy, and ozone to create something that many people don’t even want in the first place? Marketers can argue that direct mail is a successful advertising tactic, and that it ‘s more cost effective than both T.V. adds and radio adds, but the truth is that 44% of all direct mail gets sent to the dump unopened.
When 4 million tons of direct mail are sent to the dump every year, we need to ask ourselves can we be doing something better. There are stats that show that day-to-day activities like driving a car, heating a house, or even taking a shower, impact the environment more than direct mail. However, the fact is that waste is abundant in the direct mail business, and when the future of our planet is at stake no precaution is too big or too small.
Here are some other interesting facts we found about junk mail and the environment on the web:
• The average amount of mail that an American receives every year is 41 pounds, which equals to a carbon footprint of about 105 pounds.
• Even though all the trees that are cut down for the production of direct mail are replaced, there are still 100 million trees cut down for the production of bulk mail. That equals out to about one whole tree for every family in America.
• A good average for return from direct mail is 2%, and is largely the reason why direct mail enrages so many people.
• Only 36% of the mail sent to the dump is recycled, even though most of the bulk mail is recycle friendly. We need to do more as a nation to step up or recycling habits, on all fronts including paper.
• As far as our daily activities go, receiving direct mail actually ranks far at the bottom of how harmful it is for the environment. However, with so much mail going unopened we can still do more to make it less harmful.
Not only is junk mail a complete annoyance, it’s bad for the environment too. Why should we sacrifice our precious trees, energy, and ozone to create something that many people don’t even want in the first place? Marketers can argue that direct mail is a successful advertising tactic, and that it ‘s more cost effective than both T.V. adds and radio adds but as this old TIME article points out – a whole lot of it goes unopened.
When 4 million tons of direct mail are sent to the dump every year, we need to ask ourselves can we be doing something better. There are stats that show that day-to-day activities like driving a car, heating a house, or even taking a shower, impact the environment more than direct mail. However, the fact is that waste is abundant in the direct mail business, and when the future of our planet is at stake no precaution is too big or too small.
Here are some other interesting facts we found about junk mail and the environment on the web:
• The average amount of mail that an American receives every year is 41 pounds, which equals to a carbon footprint of about 105 pounds.
• Even though all the trees that are cut down for the production of direct mail are replaced, there are still 100 million trees cut down for the production of bulk mail. That equals out to about one whole tree for every family in America.
• A good average for return from direct mail is 2%, and is largely the reason why direct mail enrages so many people.
• Only 36% of the mail sent to the dump is recycled, even though most of the bulk mail is recycle friendly. We need to do more as a nation to step up or recycling habits, on all fronts including paper.
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