 Environment - February 16, 2008 |
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Red dot campaign taking off
Project would help curb waste, emissions from annual delivery of 16.6 billion pieces of junk mail |
By Kevin Ma
Staff Writer
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A B.C. woman is urging Canadians to put a stop to junk mail using a big red dot.
Beth Ringdahl launched her Red Dot Campaign website earlier this month. The initiative urges people to tell Canada Post not to send them any unaddressed mail by sending them a letter and placing a large red dot on their mailbox that says "No Junk Mail Please." Ringdahl and her two co-founders say they hope to pressure advertisers to stop printing mass ads in order to protect the environment.
Canada Post delivers about 16.6 billion pieces of junk mail each year, according to spokesperson Teresa Williams. Yet 67 per cent of Canadians say they aren’t interested in this mail, according to the Canadian Marketing Association, and 25 per cent discard it without a glance.
All this costs billions of dollars and adds millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions to the environment, according to Ringdahl. "I’m reaching out to the people who say they never read [junk mail] anyway," she said. "It’s a friendly reminder: hey guys! This is something you can do in five minutes."
Red dot stops junk
The campaign has already attracted a storm of attention, Ringdahl said, with some 53,000 people visiting the website and stories appearing on CBC. "I think this is a sign that this is a discussion people wanted to have." The campaign’s goal is to have a quarter of B.C. residents refuse to accept junk mail.
Ringdahl, an environmental consultant, said she got the idea for the campaign after she realized the impact junk mail had on the environment. Some 6.1 million tons of these ads are printed in the U.S. each year, according to ForestEthics, an environmental group that opposes junk mail, and about 44 per cent of them hit the landfill unopened. Printing those ads chops down 100 million trees and produces as much greenhouse gas as 3.5 million cars.
Ringdahl calculates that these ads are just one to three per cent effective. "Should we tolerate that as an industry standard?" she asked. "Maybe what we’ve done since the 1950s is not what we should do for the next 50 years."
Canada Post has had a policy where it will not deliver unaddressed mail if a mailbox owner tells them so with a letter, Ringdahl said. The sorting office then marks those boxes with a red dot — the source of the campaign’s name. Yet because this policy is not well advertised, she said, just five per cent of Canadians have signed up for it.
The technical name of the policy is Consumer Choice, Williams said, and it has been around for about 10 years. All Canadians are signed up for this program by default, meaning they receive unaddressed mail.
About eight per cent of St. Albert residents have elected not to receive junk mail, according to Canada Post. These residents still receive any notices from election offices and the House of Commons, as well as the 50 per cent of junk sent via newspapers. Private companies, responsible for 30 per cent of junk mail, generally respect ‘no flyers’ signs, Williams added.
Opting out also stops any unaddressed municipal notices like snow removal schedules from being delivered, Williams added. Most of those are available online if you want them or can be delivered via addressed mail to you. Canada Post can also remove your red dot if you ask, she said.
Ringdahl said she hoped her campaign would push advertisers towards more effective forms of publicity such as fundraisers or public events.
Mail carriers do get bonuses for delivering junk mail, she said, but most of the ones who have called her have supported the campaign. "I have had more calls saying they prefer not to have sore backs."
To learn more about junk mail, visit reddotcampaign.ca. |
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