Planet Ark will be helping to publicise the option of using the Mailing Preference Service which the public can register at to stop receiving unwanted mail.
“Britons receive nearly four billion pieces of direct mail every year,” said Pat Cash, the former Wimbledon champion and founder of the Planet Ark organisation.
Environment Minister Elliot Morley has backed the direct mail work, which was initially an issue that was raised by his predecessor Michael Meacher.
The public will be encouraged to put their unwanted junk mail out for recycling with newspapers. Work will continue between the paper industry and the Direct Mail Association, which has a voluntary producer responsibility agreement with the government to recycle 70% of the material by end of 2013 (see letsrecycle.com story). The agreement also aims to standardise some of the direct mail materials, especially in a bid to remove stickies (glues and gummed envelopes) and other potential contamination.
Behind
John Dee, one of the co-founders of Planet Ark, told letsrecycle.com that he felt the UK was “way behind Australia in terms of recycling. Your businesses need to get involved and local authorities need to be more active.”
He also unveiled plans by Planet Ark to work with its partners to run a National Recycling Week in 2004.
Support for Planet Ark's work is coming from partners in the UK, including Valpak's recycle-more campaign.
“We are very pleased to be working with Planet Ark on such an exciting project,” commented recycle-more spokeswoman, Georgina Collins. “This Planet Ark campaign complements recycle-more's aim to increase consumer awareness of recycling and change the way consumers think about waste.”
Exactly how the junk mail recycling and Mail Preference Service campaign will operate is still to be detailed and it is unclear exactly how it will tie in with other recycling campaigns.
WRAP
The lead in national campaigns is to be taken on by Waste and Resources Action Programme, which is not involved in the Planet Ark work. WRAP is currently in the first stages of preparing national campaign work to promote recycling, composting and waste minimisation work. It will be appointing contractors for a variety of tasks and will also be taking on the work currently involved in the Rethink Rubbish campaign.
Gareth Morton from one of the Rethink Rubbish campaign operators SWAP, said: “We are comfortable with what Planet Ark are doing. Tackling junk mail from a recycling and minimisation perspective is a good thing.”
But, the plans by Planet Ark and its partners, including Valpak, to run a National Recycling Week in 2004, do not appear yet to have involvement from local authorities and other recycling organisations.
In Australia each November Planet Ark runs National Recycling Week. At this time Planet Ark releases Australia's annual figures and the latest research on the public's recycling attitudes. Planet Ark also joins with councils around Australia to promote recycling and waste reduction on a local basis.
For more information on the Mailing Preference Service, visit mpsonline.org.uk.
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