Royal Mail, the United Kingdom's mail service, one of the most trusted postal services company in the world has found itself in the middle of a junk mail row. Plans are underway to abolish the limit on the amount of junk mail that can be delivered to peoples homes, a move that could cause a deluge of unwanted mail.
The Local Government Association (LGA) has issued a warning to the Royal Mail about its plans to remove the present strict limit of three mails per house per week. This step is bound to cause damage to the environment , cost council tax payers more and enrage private house owners ,Lord Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, Chairman of the LGA reasoned.
Households in the UK already receive a considerable amount of unwanted post by way of flyer's, restaurant menus, credit card and bank flyer's and pamphlets of various services, most of which is never opened. Last year alone the Royal Mail delivered 3.3 millions such unaddressed mail, an increase of 12.5% from the previous year. This new move is bound to increase the already burgeoning amount of land fill.
Each year 78,000 tones of junk mail is put in landfill sites, the LGA said and added that the waste generated is already increasing at around 3% a year, and has led to a 15% rise in landfill tax this year. Last year a whooping £206 million of council taxpayers' money was spent on the collecting and disposing of this rubbish.
Lord Bruce Lockhart, cautioned the Royal Mail against this proposal and voiced his grave concerns in a letter to Britain's town hall. He said: 'I am deeply worried that more junk mail - for services people do not want or need - will only lead to an increase in the amount of unnecessary rubbish”
A Royal Mail spokesman however maintained that their scheme was not a debacle. "The LGA has not written to us and they are entirely wrong in thinking anything Royal Mail has done will lead to 'unlimited' amounts of unaddressed mailings being sent to people's homes” he said.
This unaddressed mail was on the contrary a huge source of profit by which they helped maintained the low postage costs. They pointed out that posting a first class letter in the UK was by far the cheapest in Europe. The government-owned postal service also justified that they actually delivered only a quarter of the junk mail and the remaining 75% was delivered by its rivals such as TNT.
Unlike its rivals, customers have the option to instruct Royal Mail to stop sending them junk mail through the 'Opt Out' service. However this service was in the news recently when it was reported that a postman who informed customers of this option was suspended.
