The percentage of waste in the UK that goes straight into landfill sites is 60% compared to just 20% in Switzerland, a good proportion of this waste is coming from business.

Direct marketing material estimated to account for approximately 550,000 tonnes of the household waste. Of this, 181,500 tonnes is estimated to be addressed direct mail with the remaining 368,500 tonnes being unaddressed direct marketing material.

At Veridata we process returned and undelivered mail, – i.e. mail sent back with ‘RETURN TO SENDER’ often embellished with more spicy comments! Also mail that is  inaccurately addressed, mail refused and mail for which the postman deems no such address exists. All this mail, if it is one our customers, is returned to the PO Box number on the reverse of the envelope and directed by Royal mail to our premises. We open, sort, scan, and return the information to our customers. This saves them mailing to the same people again. It also provides valuable marketing information, which helps to achieve greater focus on campaign performance.

AND it saves considerable amounts of money.

Just as importantly it helps to lower their carbon footprint and meet their corporate social and environmental responsibility, for included in the cost of or service is the safe destruction and recycling of all the waste paper we process. 80% of the carbon footprint of a piece of mail is in the ‘end of life’ i.e. when it’s dumped. So if you are sending out large amounts of mail or catalogues, you should be talking to us because you too could help the planet and save money. Paper has been identified as a material where reduced waste and greater recycling can yield significant environmental benefits.

When it comes to the subject of Climate Change: If you think you are too small to make a difference try sleeping in a room with a mosquito.

Veridata returned mail handling …a Totalpost Services plc company

The annual value of direct mail expenditure to the UK economy is £8.6bn and the value of sales generated is £17bn1. Each household receives just over three pieces of direct mail every week; 67% of that mail is opened.

However David Miliband MP, has said that 550 000 tonnes of ‘junk mail’ sent each year is “unacceptable for the environment,” and with the EU land-fill directives coming in to force the need to responsibly process any undelivered mail is now more pressing.

It has long been recognized that the carbon footprint of a Direct Mail piece indicates that 80% of CO2* exposure is at the ‘end-of-life’ stage. Responsible Direct Mailers can help to reduce this by having their returns processed by Veridata. Recycling paper waste has a lower environmental impact than either land-filling or incineration.

Veridata was set up in 1996 to handle and process the returned direct mail of one of the largest credit card issuers in the Europe. We currently provide this service to a variety of mailing companies and the recycle all the waste thus reducing carbon footprint.

* Figures are 1.65 tonnes CO2 per tonne of 100% recycled paper and 2.1 tonnes for virgin paper. These figures include emissions from manufacture, distribution, print process and disposal.

When it comes to having an impact on making a contribution to reduce global warming…………. ‘If you think that you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito.’