Junk mail no more?

For many opening the letterbox only to find it full of unsolicited junk mail is a daily occurrence. But the government is finally addressing this issue by seeking to ban this practice in the new Waste Management Plan, launched by Environment minister Leo Brincat last week.

The government's goal is to reach an agreement with stakeholders with the aim of setting up a "regulatory framework" to enable citizens to unsubscribe from the delivery of unaddressed mail which many times ends up binned.

The government will also encourage catalogue, directory and magazine publishers to move away from letterbox to letterbox distribution in favour of mailing by subscription only and offering these publications online.

But if operators do not change their practices on distributing junk mail, the government will consider legislating in favour of penalties against those who persist in sending out unsolicited mail.

The policy recognises that "a portion of recipients who would not like to receive such mail probably bin it without even reading it". This is resulting in the generation of considerable amount of paper waste, which at best ends up in the recyclable bag.

Moreover, those who do not participate actively in separating this waste may divert these to the mixed waste fraction, compounding the problem further.

While a debate arose on the digital world as regards to the privacy of one's email address and the option to unsubscribe from unsolicited mail, this issue has so far not been raised for traditional mailing services, the new policy document notes.

Initially the policy suggests "a prudent approach" by the affixing of stickers on letterboxes asking distributors to refrain from depositing such mail.

Companies which produce catalogues will be encouraged to distribute their material in appropriate locations, like supermarkets and stationeries, where people can make a conscious choice to take a copy.

In addition, such companies would be encouraged to email material to those who request to receive it through a subscription.

The only attempt to control junk mail by the previous administration was through a botched tax.

In the 2009 budget, the government proposed in a 1 cent tax on every 80g of paper delivered for free on a door-to-door basis if more than half the content of the publication consisted in adverts. The tax also applied to magazines handed out for free in newspapers. The measure was presented as an attempt to reduce "vast quantities of waste".

But no reference to this tax was included in the 2010 budget and when asked by MaltaToday, a spokesperson for the finance ministry confirmed that "the government has decided not to implement the tax".