Insert Marketing – Environmentally responsible

Design and print

• Target as precisely as possible

As well as improving the commercial performance of your campaign, excellent targeting drives environmental performance. Mis-targeted mailings are inevitably a waste of materials. Work hard with your mailing data to ensure you keep mis-targeted mail to an absolute minimum.

• Consult your print specialist

Consult with your printer and paper supplier to select the most environmentally favourable print options available for your campaign.

• Optimise design to minimise wastage

Use the minimum practicable page size and pagination for your communication.

Test different formats and paginations to establish optimum efficiency.

• Avoid excess packaging

Avoid excessive packaging – although it is important that you still ensure that your collateral is packaged sufficiently to avoid it being damaged, spoiled and ultimately wasted.

• Use efficient formats

Use formats and paginations that are efficient for printing – minimising ‘trimming’ waste at source.

• Avoid ink-heavy designs

Design communications that are impactful but minimise the coverage and use of ink.

Using less ink is not only more environmentally friendly in its own right – it also means less energy used.

• Encourage customer to re-use. Better even than encouraging you customer to recycle is if you can create a mailer that they will pass on to others. Water Aid do this on their printed collateral, asking their supporters to share it after reading.

• Encourage recycling

Ensure that your printed communications always carry a message and/or logos encouraging your customer to recycle them.

Recyclability

PRINT

• Use recycleable materials

Select materials that can be easily recycled, from the kerbside, by the majority of UK local authorities.

• Avoid mixing materials

Use materials that enable the entire item to be placed into one household recycling container.

Mixed materials are more difficult to sort and recycle and are more likely to end up in landfill, even if the component materials would individually be recycleable.

• Only use certified sustainable paper mills

Source all paper products from paper mills that operate an environmental management system that accords with the standards of ISO14001 and/or the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS).

• Only use non-chlorinated bleaching methods

Only use paper that has been produced using non-chlorinated bleaching methods.

Specified for use are:

• Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF)
• Processed Chlorine Free (PCF)
• Total Chlorine Free (TCF) – including oxidising and reductive bleaching
• Use recycled paper or managed stock

Any paper that you use – including envelopes, contents and inserts – should contain:

• Recycled fibre from recovered waste paper
• Virgin fibre sourced from a forest certification scheme approved by Central Point of Expertise on

• Ensure wrapping meets OPRL

Do not use plastic envelopes or polywraps that do not meet the requirements of the On Pack Recycling Label (OPRL) scheme (including displaying the OPRL logo).

• Do not use rubber-based adhesives

Avoid using rubber-based adhesives in any part of your mailing or insert piece.

INK AND FINISHES

• Avoid lamination

Printed pieces should not use laminate finishes.

• Avoid UV finishes

Printed pieces should not use ultra-violet finishes.

Recycling statements

• Include a recycling statement on all printed marketing

All mail or insert pieces must display the ‘Recycle Now’ logo and/or statement on the outside to encourage your customer to recycle it.

The following are examples of statements that could be included on printed communications:

“Re-using is even better than recycling – please pass me on to someone else once you’ve read me. Thank you!”

“I’m on a mission to spread the word about