Green Junk Mail?
July 28, 2008 
Green Junk mail may sound like a paradox, but the concept actually falls in line with Friday’s sixth green “sin”: marketing the lesser of two evils. Junk mail, notoriously awful for the environment, has proposed plans to make its practice more eco-friendly, while still using paper. Media blog Gawker lightly criticized this effort, but hey, it’s better than nothing! The newly founded Green Marketing Coalition, combined with a handful of direct marketing agencies and their clients, plan to propose new guidelines for direct mail that will help reduce their terrible environmental impact. They encourage patronage of vendors committed to recycling and adherence to higher waste disposal standards. “List hygiene” is another interesting issue: this involves cleaning off the dead or moved-away residents from the direct mailers list. The United Postal Service is aiming to help them do this buy providing better lists of residencies.
How can the average consumer help? Simple: don’t buy products advertised via junk mail. It’s called junk for a reason. The harmful and wasteful swags of paper mailings will only be around as long as consumers support them. Encourage those close to you to send those pesky mail-outs straight to the recycling bin!
