Are you recycling your junk mail?

• Jun. 2 by Katie Wood (1)

17.5 billion Pieces of junk mail are produced every year in the United Kingdom using 550,000 tonnes of paper.

This amounts to quarter of our personal mail that each household receives each year.

A spokesperson from Birmingham City Council’s waste and recycling department states that, “The amount of paper that is wasted as a result of junk mail is phenomenal. 9.35 million Trees are used to produce the UK’s junk mail supply. This is not acceptable.”

The main information services that are mainly responsible for the amount of junk mail include:

• Financial services
• Insurance
• Retail
• Banks
• Charities

These junk mail providers gather residents address from the UK edited electoral register. The access to this information is soon likely to become illegal after the Information Commissioner has deemed that the edited register is, “an unsatisfactory way for local authorities to treat personal information.”

The council’s spokesperson states that, “There is a combination of factors can contribute in the battle to decrease the amount of junk mail we receive and therefore help the environment.

Residents can exclude their name and address from the relevant mailing lists via the Mail Preference Service. If they continue to receive junk mail residents can sort it into the relevant recycling boxes ready for kerbside collection”.

Sarah Ball, 34, from Edgbaston believes, “That junk mail is nothing but a nuisance. If it is not going to stop being sent out by companies then they need to make sure than they start sending it out on recycled paper.”

For every tonne of paper used for recycling at least 30000 litres of water is saved, 3000-4000kwh electricity and 95% of air pollution that is made when making new paper rather than recycled.