Last week, the industry admitted the threat to D2D on the grounds of waste. Our glorious industry will be forced, presumably kicking and screaming, to stop door dropping and start targeting to reduce our collective carbon footprint.
Next on the list will be inserts, and I wonder if anyone ever thought about all those CD’s and DVD’s that come with the weekend papers? We have the Mail and the Times delivered at the weekends. Apart from the amount of sections we never quite get to read, the pile of inserts that comes out of those nifty celophane wrappers is quite stunning. I am not saying we don’t look at any of it, because we do. That is the point, there is a return on investment.
The same must apply to D2D, or they would not do it, would they? Apart from the debilitating back injuries done to our loyal paper boys and girls, and our much maligned post people, carrying this stuff around, it is not very green. Obviously, I am in the business of supplying data, so I would say that, I suppose. I admit my vested interest in that regard.
However, it sounded to me like we were offering D2D up as a willing sacrifice. We all have to wake up to the fact that the world is changing. Green issues are no longer peripheral, and can no longer be ignored. Annoying people with junk, cold calls or whatever is one thing...and we have suffered from that backlash...but the fact is that as long as we pay our taxes and create jobs the regulators are unlikely to crush us.
But if we let ourselves get pushed to the front of the queue in terms of crimes against the environment, we are in big trouble. D2D may turn out to be the thin end of the wedge. Consumers are being assaulted with green guidance, and they (we) are paying for the recycling process one way or another. We have to get our own house in order, before someone imposes restrictions from on high.
Hugh Bessant
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Member since: 03 Jun 2008
Last login: 18 Nov 2009
Total Posts: 323
