DUKKY

by Brice Sanderford | July 2, 2009

Lets face it, junk mail is a daily annoyance that drives many people crazy. However, the never-ending assault on people’s mailboxes has another dark side to it: its effect on the environment. It’s easy to forget that the catalog or letter that so often gets tossed into the trashcan unopened costs energy and supplies to make. Why are we sacrificing 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 fact 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 if we can be doing something better. Not only should we as consumers pay more attention to recycling junk mail, but also to letting companies know when we’re not interested, and in return they should make better attempts to adhere to our requests. Day-to-day activities like driving a car, heating a house, or even taking a shower may impact the environment more than direct mail according to recent research. However, the fact remains 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 per person.

• 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.

• 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 our 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.

• A good average for return from direct mail is 2%, and is largely the reason why direct mail enrages so many people. Companies like Dukky are taking a stand against low standards and committing to higher results. Here at Dukky we guarantee 8% returns on our direct mail and can even see numbers as high as 15%.

Lots of companies are working hard to make their mail more efficient and effective by getting their mail to the right people. But there is still more work to be done. We all need to do our part to improve the direct mail market, and to ensure that direct marketing is no longer the problem but part of the solution.

Check out this article that tells companies how to reduce their direct mail waste:
http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/11/17/9-ways-to-eliminate-direct-mail-waste/#more-917

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