ForestEthics, the environmental watchdog group known for its creative protest against catalogers, is taking a new tack. The San Francisco-based nonprofit has launched its own Do Not Mail campaign (www.DoNotMail.org).
ForestEthics executive director Todd Paglia said in a March 11 conference call to launch the campaign that more than 18,000 people have signed a petition supporting Do Not Mail legislation, which is pending in more than a dozen states.
“There are 100 billion pieces of junk mail sent to U.S. citizens very year,” Paglia said. “And the environmental costs associated with these pieces of mail are tremendous. It cost 100 million trees for this mail.” What’s more, he said nearly 9 million people are affected by identity theft annually due to the proliferation of junk mail.
Also on the call was Vermont State Rep. Christopher Pearson, a member of the Progressive Party, and the state’s lead sponsor of the Do Not Mail legislation. “We have about 25 sponsors on the bill here in Vermont,” Pearson said. “Our landfills are maxed out, and we spend between $2 million and $3 million on disposal costs. I’m hearing more and more from Vermonters about having the ability to block junk mail. It will gain traction in House before year is out.”
Regarding what a bill like this could potentially mean to catalogers, Paglia said it’s more about “honoring U.S. citizens’ ability to choose what mail they get. We’re talking about direct mail going to the next level of specificity of who they want to do business with. We’re hearing if there’s a way to tailor these mailings, to make them smaller and more targeted, some of the (catalog) industry is for that. If customers don’t want junk mail, we have to create a way for that to happen.”
Catalog industry supporters were quick to fire back. Hamilton Davison, executive director of the American Catalog Mailers Association (ACMA), says that landfills are not filled with junk mail. In fact, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, junk mail accounts for less than 1% of landfill volume.
Substantial employment and a diversity of products come from catalogs, Davison says, and Do Not Mail legislation carries a “very real potential of shutting down direct mail. We have effective substitutes. We as an industry will get the job done in eliminating unwanted catalogs. This sort of broadbrush approach lifts up an emotional frenzy and is counterproductive to commerce.”
Among the emerging industry solutions, Davison says, are Catalog Choice, a free service that allows consumers to decide what they receive in their mailboxes. Also, the Direct Marketing Association has launched “Commitment to Consumer Choice” (CCC) guidelines that apply to all DMA members using mail to communicate with consumers. The CCC is DMA’s public assurance that all association members will follow specific practices to honor consumer choice in the receipt of solicitations.
Still, Davison believes the industry needs to do more. “We’re getting organized to do enough, and it would be preemptive to have federal legislation that has all sorts of downsides. Not the least of which is placing catalogers in fiscal jeopardy.
“It could be huge and shut down the entire channel,” he says. “We realize the need to get organized, yet here is another threat to our financial viability that needs to be addressed, and the only way to address that is collaboratively.”
Steve Berry, the DMA’s executive vice president for government affairs, says it is unfortunate ForestEthics wants to focus on a Do Not Mail registry. “And they focus on it in a fashion that doesn’t adequately address the facts,” he says. ‘It’s a shame they continue to want to pursue that. Our goal is to bring more choice to the consumer” with programs such CCC.
“It’s always a concern when you have several groups pushing a position and a policy that is not well informed and basically opposes what your industry is trying to do,” he says.