Panel hears pros and cons of junk mail

February 8, 2008

MONTPELIER -- Residents of the 22 towns in the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District probably receive 23 million pieces of junk mail a year, said Donna Barlow Casey, the district's executive director.

Whether it's recycled or ends up in a landfill, Casey said managing junk mail costs the district $168,000 annually.

"Junk mail is a waste," Casey told members of the House Commerce Committee on Thursday. "A waste of resources, a waste of time, a waste of money." She told lawmakers she welcomed a bill that would set up a registry for Vermonters who don't wish to receive unsolicited commercial mail.

"To me, the key question on the table is whether or not Vermonters have the right to control their own mailboxes," said Paul Burns, executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group.

Burns noted that it's possible to contact businesses and ask them to stop sending advertisements. People can also register with a mail preference service run by the Direct Mail Association.
Burns asked the committee, "Why aren't we doing more to make it easy for people?"

He also questioned an economic model of direct mail, noting that responses to unsolicited advertising run around 3 percent.

"There has got to be a better way than having a 97 percent waste rate," Burns said. Mailers don't pay the full cost of this wasteful system, he added. It's the people who receive junk mail who incur the cost of disposing or recycling it.

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