Often unread mailings go straight to the trash. If only households had advertising in their mailboxes that really wanted it, a considerable amount of CO2 could be saved.
[Berlin -] According to calculations by Deutsche Umwelthilfe, unwanted mailbox advertising causes emissions of more than half a million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) every year.
According to this, up to 535,000 tonnes of the greenhouse gas could be saved in paper production every year if only those households received advertising mail that actually wanted it. This emerges from the current data presented by the environmental association this Friday and which the dpa had in advance.
Currently, the rule applies that households must explicitly reject unsolicited advertising mail, for example with a sticker “Please no advertising” if they do not want to receive anything. Deutsche Umwelthilfe is calling for a reverse “opt-in rule” to be introduced by law, which will only allow advertising mail to be thrown in by those who expressly indicate that they want to do so on their mailboxes.
According to estimates by the Federal Environment Agency, there are around 500 to 700 grams of unsolicited advertising and free newspapers per household every week. The DUH estimates that around three quarters of citizens would no longer receive advertising if an opt-in rule would apply. The calculated CO2 savings potential is also based on this assumption.
So far, only about 28 percent of citizens would use stickers to indicate that they do not want advertising mail, writes the DUH, citing data from the newspaper market research company ZMG.
Last December, the association turned to the Federal Ministry of Justice with this request and collected 100,000 signatures. The desired change in the law has not yet taken place. In response to a dpa request, the ministry announced that it could understand the concerns of the environmentalists and that possible regulatory options were currently being examined. However, important balancing issues have not yet been clarified, for example with a view to possible disadvantages for local companies.
For example, advertising mail is “an important sales promotion instrument” for stationary retail, explained a spokeswoman. In addition, an opt-in rule could also affect the freedom of the press if, for example, advertising papers with an editorial part were covered by a ban. [dpa]
