How to Deal with "Do Not Mail" Mania
By PostCom, Association for Postal Commerce

These days in the mailing industry undoubtedly are not the best of times. They may not be the worst either, but they certainly are challenging. For the past three years, those who use mail for business communication and commerce have had to deal with unrelenting attacks by self-styled critics of our industry and practices who are relentlessly pursuing state and federal legislation that would stringently limit your ability to use mail within your business.

These critics come in various guises. The most common centers on their "concern" over the environmental impact of mail. According to the stories they tell, anyone who uses mail within their business is guilty of destroying the world's forests, polluting our air and water, overfilling our landfills, and just about every other nasty behavior one can imagine.

In making their claims, they claim to offer "facts." What they offer instead are lies, myths, and the sharing of a general ignorance of who uses mail, the purposes for which it is used, the environmentally sound aspects of doing business by mail, and just about every other of the common sense and good economic reasons why the establishment and maintenance of a universal mail delivery system has been a hallmark of every country around the world.
Below are a set of links to help your business and foster our common goals of preserving and promoting the use of the mail for business communication and commerce.

The materials include model letters you can revise as you see fit to tell your employees and advertisers about the value of the mail and your response to junk mail attacks. There are also letters to the media and any group that is out to destroy your business by funding or supporting antimail legislation or negative consumer attitudes. There are fact sheets you can use on your company website, or otherwise, about the benefits of mail, and the real impact of ad mail on the environment.

Links to Important Information You Can Use

• Start By Doing Homework At Home (Getting your employees informed and involved. A sample letter.)
• Communicating With Those Who Advertise and Market by Mail (A sample letter.)
• Taking The Lies Head On (A sample letter.)
• People In Glass Houses Should Never Throw Stones (Educate Your Environmental Colleagues. A sample letter.)
• Mail, Public Policy And The Law
• Truthful Messages You Can Use
• Some Interesting Facts That Belie The Myths
• Other Useful Goodies You Can Use
• Q & A On Paper, Ad Mail, Landfills, & Recycling
• Some Facts About Trees and Common Sense
• Facts About America's Landfills
• Recovery And Reuse of Mail And Paper
• How To Make Your Case
• Working Effectively And Honestly With The Media (An excellent guide produced by media consultant Peter Miller.)

---Source: PostCom (http://postcom.org/eco/do.not.mail.mania.htm).