Junk mail hater draws response from junk mail participant
Guest opinion
By Karla Jo Helms

In a recent New York Times article about GreenDimes (the for-profit company on a crusade to stop junk mail), founder Pankaj Shah uses a wide generality to attempt to make a point. Saying that "nobody" likes junk mail is a bit far-fetched. I like it, if it's targeted to me and pertains to me.

I've discovered products and services that have been beneficial to me that I otherwise wouldn't have found out about.

No doubt there are earth statistics that are scary. According to the Taipei Times , there's a loss of 14.6 million hectares (hectare is a metric land measurement and equals 2.47 acres) of forests every year--an area almost four times the area of Switzerland.

Save America's Forests in Washington, D.C., states that 95 percent of America's original forests were logged during the past 200 years, citing the U.S. Forest Service clear cutting down millions of acres of National Forests and selling off the logs to international timber corporations.

Irresponsible forest management, enhanced by poor governmental regulation and enforcement, and markets that reward illegal logging should be investigated and made accountable.

But trees are planted and grown specifically to make paper. Most trees used for paper come from forests called managed timberlands. They're agricultural crops like vegetables on a farm. The trees are grown to be made into products for human use. Many forests might not exist in the first place if trees weren't planted and harvested by this industry.

More trees are planted every year than are cut down. This is due in most part to the success of managed timberlands. Whenever trees are harvested, more trees are planted to take their place. More trees are destroyed by fire and insects than are cut down to make paper. And, on an average, when a tree is harvested for making paper, five more are planted in its place.

One of the reasons for recycling is to save landfill space. Paper is one of the few consumer products that's fairly easy and inexpensive to recycle. It can be made into many new products, including corrugated boxes, packaging, newsprint, tissue and writing paper, among other things.

Using an average of 700 pounds of paper products per year per person, paper makes up almost a third of the material which goes into landfills. An old newspaper recycled in the U.S. can end up as part of a box made in Africa--quite a wise use of a tree. In the U.S., more paper is recycled than is sent to landfills, and more paper is recovered for recycling than all glass, aluminum and plastics combined.

The solution

Businesses need to be more responsible with whom they mail to. The road to success with direct mail would include careful selection of one's mailing list.

With that in mind, junk mail would virtually fall by the wayside. The recent Do-Not-Mail bills attempting to thwart businesses and direct mailers from reaching out to potential customers is, in some experts' opinions, the main reason why targeted lists are so vital in the fight to cut out junk mail.

Studies show that 70 percent of the U.S. population prefers direct mail to e-mail or phone calls. However, for it to be direct mail, it must "direct" its message to people for whom it is relevant and to their purchasing habits.

Karla Jo Helms is the vice president of public relations for PostcardMania. Visit their website at www.postcardmania.com