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Postcomm has estimated that around 550,000 tonnes of paper is used to produce 17.5 billion pieces of junk mail sent out every year. The 4.5 billion pieces of addressed junk mail use 181,5 tonnes of paper, while 368,500 tonnes of paper is needed to produce the 13 billion pieces of unaddressed junk mail.
550,000 tonnes of paper amounts to 4.4 per cent of UK's annual consumption of paper and board. DEFRA estimates that junk mail makes up nearly 2 per cent of all household waste.
It takes about 17 mature trees to produce a tonne of paper. The equivalent of 550,000 tonnes of paper is therefore 9,35 million trees.
In 2003 only 13 per cent of direct mail was recycled. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has estimated that this figure rose to 28 per cent in 2005.
Increasing recycling levels of junk mail is part of a voluntary agreement between the DMA and the Government. The agreement, signed in July 2003, aims to increase recycling levels to:
30 per cent by the end of 2005;
55 per cent by the end of 2009; and
70 per cent by the end of 2013
Although 'maximising the use of recycled paper' for junk mail is also part of the agreement between the DMA and the Government, it is not publicly known what percentage of advertisement mail is currently printed on recycled paper.
It not only takes a lot of trees to produce junk mail; it also takes a lot of water. In fact, to produce a tonne of paper no less than 30m³ water is used. Therefore a total of 16.5 million m³ of water is used for the production of junk mail in Britain every year. That is 16.5 billion litres.