Direct Mail recycling goals not met

UK’s DMA is warning of resorting to stern action against organisations which do not succeed in meeting the next recycling targets for direct mail. Failure to do so, the DMA argues, means the industry will miss the recycling targets by very large numbers.

These targets which are likely to be missed were set by the government half a decade ago and compel the industry to ensure the recycling of fifty five per cent of direct mail by the year 2009. And by 2012 the recycling of direct mail should have reached seventy per cent.

Robert Keich, the DMA Director of Media Channel Development and Environmental Affairs is quoted as saying that if immediate steps are not taken to redress the situation, the industry would have problems meeting the target of recycling fifty five per cent of direct mail. He added that if nothing was done about it the industry would manage to recycle only forty per cent of direct mail.

The DMA is putting pressure on the industry to make sure that all direct mail materials bear the Recycle Now logo. If the next goals set are not satisfactorily met the direct mail industry may find itself facing more stringent legislative measures especially concerning direct marketing mail that is not solicited.

Joan Ruddock, the Minister for Climate Change, Biodiversity and Waste is on record as having issued a stern warning to the direct marketing industry. She warned that unless the direct marketing practitioners adopted greater use of the Recycle Now logo, then the Government would have no choice but to come up with new laws.