The environmental impact of junk mail

This morning's Today trailed a Panorama programme to go out this evening on the impact of junk mail. Rarely considered alongside junk mail's reputation for deception and scams it transpires that the environmental impact of junk mail is huge: in Cornwall alone the annual cost of landfilling it amounts to £700k. Unfortunately junk mail also keeps the Royal Mail viable. Colleague, Karen Stanbridge, has a very detailed perspective on junk mail from her diary study of what people notice about documents. Participants in her study had finely-tuned filters and low tolerance for junk mail, particularly for cross-selling from existing suppliers.