How to Minimise Environmental Impact of Direct Mail Plastic

My goodness, it’s all over the news at the moment, isn’t it? And rightly so. How the use of plastic is damaging our planet is an important topic that needs to be highlighted. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking, “What’s the point of trying to limit use of plastics? Little old me can’t make a difference to such an immense global problem.” Here at Mailing Expert, we’re firm believers in doing what we can to protect the environment. There’s that famous quote, sometimes attributed to the Dalai Lama, but most likely an African proverb: “If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito!”

So, here is our advice on how to minimise the environmental impact of direct mail plastic.

Direct mailing and Plastic Wrapping

Polythene wrapping mailed items is popular, especially for brochures and magazines, helping to protect products from water damage and wear and tear. However, smaller items can be mailed plastic free, so think about using postcards, paper envelopes and one-piece mailers for your marketing; be creative and standout from the crowd.

Using “good” Alternatives

  • There are recyclable, bio, oxo-degradable, compostable and photodegradable plastics available for mailing envelopes and bags.
  • Shrink plastic film which breaks down is available, but it’s NOT truly biodegradable (yet), even if advertised as such. It is “degradable” — because the molecular structure doesn’t change, or, if it does, it will take decades. The best thing to do here is minimise the thickness of the film you use. (It’s worth noting here, that weight-for-weight, paper uses 100% more power in its production than plastic, so it too has an environmental impact)
  • For packaging, there’s shredded cardboard and paper, and material made from corn or potato starch. There is also biodegradable bubble wrap, with a special additive that means it only lasts for 1-2 years in landfill before being absorbed into the ground as a harmless residue.

We can offer all of these sustainable direct mail marketing alternatives to our clients. These are great products although they do have a shorter shelf-life, since they start to degrade as soon as they’re in contact with light and/or oxygen. They are also more expensive.

We always use suppliers with excellent environmental standards

Here’s a quote from one of them: We implement a strict environmental policy which ensures that we exercise proper control over our activities, to discourage environmentally damaging and wasteful practices. As a minimum, we comply with all requirements of legislation and are always striving to achieve ever improved standards.”

This is what we look for in any company whose products we use for direct mailing, as well as adhering to very high standards ourselves.

We recycle!

Even if some plastics aren’t waste-friendly, they can be reprocessed into a form which means they can be used again for other applications which require lower grade material, such as refuse bags, fertiliser sacks, chairs, benches, tables and pallets. For this reason, we sort and recycle our plastic waste. It’s about giving things we do a little thought. So we only use soap bars in our loos and not those dispensers (the tops are very difficult to recycle).

Why not join us?

Richard Rogers, the British architect, once said, “The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved.”

As you can see, there are several ways to help reduce the environmental impact of direct mail plastic and marketing materials. Let’s work together to grown your business and do our bit to help save the planet.

Mailing Expert