Junk Mail: Ideas for Businesses
What’s the problem?
Businesses and institutions also receive a great deal of unsolicited mail, such as catalogs and advertising mail for products and services of all kinds. Even when these materials are wanted, there can be a tremendous amount of waste and duplication. Do these sound familiar?
- Mail for staff members that are long gone.
- Multiple mailings for the same person, often with small inconsistencies — misspellings, abbreviations — that make them seem like unique records.
- Poorly targeted mailings, such as office supply catalogs for the CEO or E-commerce seminars for your building maintenance staff.
Handling this unwanted mound of paper and plastic costs you money. There's certainly a lot of paper waste which needs to be sorted and hauled away for disposal or recycling. But perhaps of greater concern is the amount of staff time you may have invested in handling and sorting all of this extra material. At one office mailroom, a six-week study showed that the mailroom staff was spending 25 percent of its time sorting Standard Class advertising mail.
Where do I get more information to rid my business of unwanted mail?
- Business Junk Mail Reduction Project:
- This project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition provides detailed information and tips to help your business or organization reduce unwanted mail.
- Ecological Mail Coalition:
- This new venture wants to help you spread the word about employees that have left your company. The company markets a service to direct mailers by maintaining a database of the names and work addresses of former employees. Learn more about how you can get involved in this innovative program that is free to the organizations that submit information.
