December 13, 2007

Cell phone companies, banks big paper wasters

I guess I should switch to an electronic statement from my cell phone provider, but that still won’t prevent the ad mail they send me. The last one I got used some pretty heavy (thick) paper to deliver me a message I’d already received before. Tonight an unaddressed Telus mailer arrived with some crap about cell phone gifts and other stuff, which is fine and all, but inside was tucked a large (16″ x 20″ maybe?), folded up, foul-smelling poster with cheesy coloured fake starfish on it and a silver backing. What am I supposed to do with that? Put it on my wall? Use it as gift wrap? Throw paint at it? It has no meaning and while its Telus branding is slightly evident, they could have at least done something that would spread their brand to people rather than recycling or, god forbid, trash bins.

Last time I got a bent, cheap mouse pad with some image on it that didn’t even work properly with your good old optical mouse. This thing wasn’t recyclable either, so then I had this burden of tossing something out. I should have mailed it back to them; let them deal with their waste issues.

My cell phone bill and anything from my old bank, statement or not, would come with extra pages, and little slips of paper like travel and insurance advertising. (At least the former company prints double-sided.) But I should really sign up for e-statements. When I did so with my credit union, they sent me a handy cloth bag!

There’s some interesting new printing/design techniques that allow for customized print jobs so that the advertising generated is more audience-specific, though this seems to rely on a company’s knowledge of individuals, which I find kind of scary.

So it would help the environment and business budgets if they would just consider what kind of waste impact admail is generating. I know they’re not the only culprits, but we can’t just forgive one because it’s better than the other. Make an example. Telus, please bring back your useful cute Christmas tags and cut the other crap.