From the first moment that I started working here the big hairy audacious elephant in the room has been, how will digital media affect what we do?  Very important people have asked this pertinent question.  Several attempts have been made to explore and even answer this question.  But, like to many other brain numbing and impossibly complex questions before it, this hypothetical mind spasm has been placed on the shelf.  It’s like, we know it is there but it hasn’t made any noise and the smell isn’t that bad, so we are able to walk past it with little to no acknowledgement, going about the daily grind of business as usual, ahhhh ♥Mail. 

The longer I sit in this room, staring at my computer, the more I realize, “what if” what I had first recognized as an elephant in the room scenario really is an 800lb gorilla dilemma?  As this transformation (more palpable as my understanding of mail grows) takes place before my very eyes, my pulse quickens, my nervous system becomes fully engaged and the real questions start to organize themselves in my mind.  Questions like; 

1.        What if organizations determine that a digital presence is all they will need to carry them into and through the next decade? 

2.       What if organizations decide to stop mailing while they are figuring out how to best utilize the popular wave of, “Electronic Advertising”.

3.       Where do we fit with the growing popularity of online marketing campaigns?

Some of you may be wondering why I would have these worries.  Let me clear things up, the purpose of this website is not to eliminate mail.  I believe that a functional and reliable mailing system is one of the hall marks of civilized society.  We are here to support mailers.  Our mission is to eliminate unnecessary waste by minimizing the amount of materials sent to incorrect addresses or recipients that are no longer at the intended address.  So, with your shiny new understanding of our goals you can see why my internal alarm system would ring so loudly that it would prompt this blog.  To solve these queries, we need to better understand the capabilities of this 800lb Gorilla.  Stay Tuned………

~Green Girl

I would like to thank all of the Mail Centers that participated in our wasteful mail watch campaign for a recent mailing of a certain, “BIG BOOK”.  A big book that comes in a white box with red lettering, but I won’t name names or divulge details for privacy’s sake.  But, I will say, all of your feedback was awesome!  Now we have concrete evidence that a significant percentage of this mailers campaign was not received by their intended recipients.  For a sample of some of the feedback about this mailing please read below!

Mail Center Feedback 

Happy America Recycles Day (ARD)

Friday, Nov. 13th marks the 12th annual America Recycles Day (ARD).  I would like to welcome all UNC Chapel Hill ARD participants on behalf of Intra-Mail Network!

In 1993 the Texas Recycling Coalition developed a program called “Texas Recycles Day”. This statewide event was designed to put recycling in the spotlight, and though it took four years for the program to go nationwide, Texas Recycles Day was the model for the national program.

Since its inception in 1997, the ARD campaign has promoted “the social, environmental and economic benefits of recycling and encouraged more people to join the movement toward creating a better natural environment.”

Twenty years ago, only 1,000 curbside recycling programs were available in the U.S. Today, over 10,000 curbside programs help over 82 million tons of materials have another chance at a useful life, saving billions of gallons of energy and millions of dollars in energy every year.  Americans only recycle 1.5 pounds of the 4.6 pounds they generate on average each day. That means that you trash over 1,100 pounds of waste annually.  The beauty of recycling lies in its simplicity. When you tossing your everyday (recyclable) waste in the proper bin, you take trash and turn it into jobs, products and processes that not only boost our economy, but improve the health of the planet.

Intra-Mail Network takes recycling to another level in that we consider the necessity of the waste that will be created before we create it!  Thank you for visiting www.wastefreemail.com and I look forward to reading your thoughts, concerns, and comments!

Is seeing really believing? 

For readers that don’t know who IMN is or what she does please allow my brief biography.  IMN (Intra-Mail network) was conceived with a purpose.  I will keep the intimate details of her conception private but please know that she was engineered to solve a specific problem within a specific time and space. 

Problem:  how can outside mailers send a significant number of pieces of mail to a group of specific consumers whose address’ are on a non-postal mail route through the United States Postal System? 

Answer:  You can’t.  Or better yet you can send it to the mail center (every non-postal mail zone has one) and hope that it reached the intended recipient. 

Back to my original point, IMN was born to solve this very specific problem.  All over the US corporations are mailing catalogs, brochures, magazines, newsletters, postcards (and the list goes on) to Non-postal route customers including colleges, universities, military bases, hospitals, and large office buildings. In these cases, the U.S. Postal Service delivers the mail to a central location at the particular institution. That mail center then distributes mail to the singular ultimate customers like college students, faculty, soldiers, nurses, or office workers. However, the problem is that incoming commercial mail is unsorted and virtually never conforms to the institution’s delivery pattern.

IMN (much like the USPS, FEDEX, UPS) serves as a bridge between the two entities, partnering with non-postal route customers, understanding their unique delivery schemes and maintaining updated records with regard to end users on their delivery routes.  IMN also serves client mailers to ensure that they are reaching their intended parties.

Unfortunately for Mail Centers and mailer clients alike IMN was born long after it was determined that the USPS and non-postal zone Mail Centers would be two separate entities, meaning that there is no nationally standardized delivery scheme for any one particular institution.  Again this is where IMN comes into play, she retains an intellectual wealth of knowledge of many of these delivery schemes.

Now that you are somewhat familiar with who IMN is and what she is here for I can revert back to my original question.  Is seeing really believing?  I ask this question to understand what exactly it takes to convince Mail Centers and mailers alike that everything that I have mentioned above is the absolute 100% truth.

Recently an anonymous institution referred the name of a particular mailer whose piece was deemed undeliverable to IMN. This information was accompanied by several photographs of the piece in the “recycling bin” (trash).  This information was forwarded to the mailer along with some information about IMN and a quote for services.  Compared to the original budget for production and postage on this piece if the mailer utilized IMN’s services they would have saved over 50% of their budget and received confirmation that their piece was delivered.  I personally believe that money like energy is never really created or destroyed, it is just transferred and no one likes to waste or throw theirs away.  So back to my original question, is seeing really believing?  As a mailer isn’t it your job to make sure that your marketing piece gets in the hands of your intended target?  So if, with your own two eyes, you see your marketing piece (marketing dollars) literally in the trash isn’t it your duty to figure out a way to keep it out of the trash and get it to the right destination?  Mailers really don’t believe that their marketing materials are going straight to the trash, sometimes un-removed from their packaging.  IMN seems like a no brainer to me.  What do you think?

~Green Girl

A comment was made “Please remove all these people of any catalog list!!!!!  No one with a computer uses a catalog anymore!”  We would like to hear your view on the statement made.  Is paper still needed?

Welcome to the first Blog from the Waste Free Mail team.  We are excited about its launch and the platform to chat about the impact of waste on our environment. Although we will be focusing on paper waste, it is our goal to increase awareness on all levels of environmental conservation,  This blog is designed to educate, inform and encourage feedback.  We want to hear how you support sustainable energy and living and the smart choices you are making everyday.