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In May 2007 the Government published its Waste Strategy White Paper. In it, the Government announced that it would ask the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) to make the Mailing Preference Service (the opt-out scheme allowing you to stop the bulk of addressed junk mail) more effective. The then environment secretary, David Miliband, also hinted that if the DMA would fail to do so, the Government would look at introducing a system whereby people would have to opt in to receive junk mail, rather than the other way round.
About a month later, Wales' Sustainability Minister Jane Davidson announced that the Welsh might even go further than this. In an interview with Wales on Sunday she said:
"We want Wales to be a green country and we need to drive forward that agenda. At the moment the responsibility for getting rid of junk mail sits with the person who receives it. We might want to turn that on its head and may consider a measure that will deal with this issue. Junk mail contributes nothing to the environment."
Since the DMA has promised the end of 'economy of scale' marketing and has urged marketers to consider their impact on the environment and to work to tackle concerns that the industry is producing too much waste paper. Royal Mail has introduced a 'green' door-to-door scheme, giving companies the option to carbon offset any CO2 emissions caused by their door drops.
The latest development is the introduction by the DMA of the Your Choice preference scheme for unaddressed mail; an opt-out that is as yet even less effective than the door-to-door opt-out.