Great news – the direct marketing industry has drastically cut down the amount of waste caused by direct mail campaigns. Definitely a reason to celebrate!

In 2003 Defra [Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] introduced recycling targets to help the direct marketing industry reduce the amount of waste they produced. Aided by the Royal Mail and DMA (UK), who have implemented a variety of new industry initiatives, this has already resulted in an astonishing 79% drop in the amount of direct mail entering landfill.

After meeting the set target in 2009, a new report by the Royal Mail shows that the 2013 target has also been beaten. The voluntary target which was set for 2009 required that 55% of direct marketing material be recycled, increasing to 70% in 2013. The industry is currently seeing 76.5% percent of all direct marketing material being recycled – far ahead of expectation.

So how has this been achieved?

Over the past decade, there has been a definite increase in the awareness of environmental damage and measures have been put in place to encourage households to recycle regularly. This of course has helped contribute to the industry’s success. In the past seven years, there has also been an increase in the number of people signing up to the MPS, cutting down on the size of direct mail distributions.

However, the direct marketing industry has taken an active role in reducing the amount of waste which they produce.
The industry has highlighted the importance of accurate targeting in direct mail campaigns. Many data suppliers are encouraging clients to purchase lists which target a smaller cross section of the market, but one which matches their specific customer profile. In this way, the amount of direct mail distribution is reduced and the response rate unaffected, or improved. The Royal Mail’s Sustainable Mail service supports this move, rewarding mailers for better targeted, sustainably produced and easy to recycle direct mail with lower prices.

A combination of new guidelines, introduced to measure the impact of direct mail on the environment, an expansion of best practices by the DMA (UK) and a continued dedication to promoting recycling, has resulted in direct mail now responsible for a mere 0.4 percent of non-recycled household waste. Long may the progress continue…