Licensing junk mail?

[rkhff]

An idea that has come up a couple of times over the years is a
licensing scheme for leaflet distributors. There are sound arguments
in favour of a licensing scheme:

1. Within the industry there's plenty of bad practice: 'No Junk Mail'
signs are frequently ignored, junk mail is often dumped in central
hallways where it just accumulates, letterboxes already overflowing
with junk more often than not continue to be stuffed with
advertisements etc. A licensing scheme could force companies to meet
certain standards.

2. It would give people a right not to receive unaddressed junk mail.
At the moment there's nothing you can do if your 'No Junk Mail' sign
is ignored - as far as the junk mail industry is concerned 'No Junk
Mail' signs don't exists. Yet, the industry's opt-out schemes for
unaddressed junk mail (the Door-to-Door Opt-Out and Your Choice) only
cover about half of all leaflets coming throughout the door. Clearly,
this isn't encouraging people to take action to cut back on junk mail.
By setting up a licensing scheme local councils can force distributors
to respect 'No Junk Mail' signs.

3. The bill for disposing of junk mail is currently footed by the
recipient / tax payer. Given that unaddressed junk mail is always
unsolicited and that disposing of junk mail is expensive it's only
fair to make the polluter pay. Local councils could recoup money spent
on disposing of unaddressed junk mail via the licensing scheme.


In practice setting up a licensing scheme may be difficult, though I
reckon it should be doable. Some thoughts on the practicalities of
licensing schemes...

1. The scheme would need the support from local residents. If people
aren't bothered about leaflets coming through the door there's little
point in setting up licensing schemes. Opinions could be gathered via
consultations.

2. Ideally, any licensing scheme would have some support from
distribution companies. Within the industry there are decent companies
that are concerned about bad practice. Such companies may be in favour
of a scheme that would raise standards.

3. The license fee could be based on the volume of unaddressed mail
distributed by individual companies (so that the fee is proportional
to the amount of waste created). There should be a minimum volume
below which companies are exempt from obtaining a license.

4. The exact cost of the license should be based on the cost of
disposing of unaddressed junk mail. Of course, the cost would need to
be calculated independently, and the calculation should be verifiable.

5. Unsolicited, unaddressed mail includes paper directories! In
various countries abroad local authorities have taken action agains
directories such as the Yellow Pages. For instance, Seattle has just
introduced an opt-out scheme which includes a levy to recoup the cost
of recycling directories (see, for instance, www.stopjunkmail.org.uk/news/articles/110505.php).

[West Field]

I love this idea, it's a real shame we can't set this up, or at least
get some councils to consider it.

As you are extremely good at getting the point across, would it be
possible for you to write out a 'sample ' letter as it were ?, we
could then simply copy this with our own councils name and address and
get it sent off, I think that such a letter would at least make them
aware that we ( and don't forget that these councils are supposed to
be serving us !!) feel the need for such a system in order to reduce
the unwanted mail, and perhaps more importantly the disposal thereof.

[rkhff]

I'm hoping to discuss the idea with the local Green Party here in Norwich (they're the official opposition on the city council with no party in overall control). When I contacted them they told me they looked at setting up a licensing scheme a couple of year ago (a local distribution company made the case for it at the time). Although they liked the idea it wasn't pursued because of concerns about practicalities.

I'll report back when I got more news. If the idea is feasible (and I can't see why not) we could create some sort of blueprint for setting up local licensing schemes for leaflet distributors. A standard letter which people can send to their local council (or local political parties?) will no doubt be part of that.

[rkhff]

Today met with the Greens to discuss licensing distribution companies. The idea makes perfect sense and so this is to be continued. There are legal issues that need to be looked at (thankfully not my job) and we're planning to get views from local people over the next couple of weeks / months.

It will take some time but I reckon this is a feasible idea... and if it works here in Norwich it may spread like wildfire.

[West Field]

Well done, thank you for your time spent on this.

I know my area would certainly be interested so here's to Norwich and
its new LJM system, may need a name change there, but LJM does have a
ring to it, lol....