In every physical mailbox of first world countries, you'll find so much waste. Every single day I retrieve my mail, it feels like 80-90% of it gets dropped right in the recycle bin. When I do so, as a papermaker, I feel like I'm doing my part to put that fiber back into the waste stream that finds its way to another forming table on a paper machine. Now that we are in a political season, it feels much worse. What's left of my mailbox haul basically falls into one of two categories: bills and notices of one form or another.
For most readers of this column, your very paycheck comes from the fact that there is demand for paper that forms the bulk of that junk mail. Back in the days of Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs, that was the golden age where machines were churning out lightweight fine paper grades 24x7x350 days a year. A few down days for maintenance were absolutely necessary. Did you ever feel sorry for those mail carriers delivering the dense books to nearly every household? Don't get me started about the white and yellow pages...
All that junk mail contains some kind of marketing message to reach people physically. When I think about the costs involved in producing each and every piece, plus the postage to deliver it thousands of miles away, I begin to wonder...does this even work anymore? Fiber was sourced, webs were formed, sheets were cut, pieces were printed, bundles assembled, postage applied and delivered to your door. Unsolicited, which means the recipient doesn't care what it says.
All the fuel, capital, natural resources, and human labor that goes into the process of junk mail is wasted. How do any of the organizations funding it make any money? Maybe I'm just naïve on how promotion and advertising works. Maybe a 0.1% response rate actually moves the profit needle. It hasn't gone away in my lifetime, so I guess it makes money somehow or it would be obsolete.
What's really interesting in our digital world is that junk email has exploded with the advent of the internet. At least the 100 junk emails I receive a day aren't clearing forests, consuming vast quantities of water, and putting workers at risk of injury. Harkening back to a previous column about Jevons Paradox, you can see it in action that by lowering the costs of promotions, you get so much more, like 100X more. Plus, it's easy to delete with a swipe or click of an icon. Laws have been written in this modern era to enable recipients to opt out or unsubscribe, so you do have some agency in managing what is received electronically. You don't have that luxury for the physical junk mail in your mailbox. So it continues to flow.
With fuel and fiber costs inflating constantly, going digital will no doubt be a strategy for anyone involved in information dissemination. This very publication, Nip Impressions, is 100% digital. That way, it can provide news and updates every single day and not have to wait for a publishing cycle of previous generations. For advertisers on the platform, you can count how many people saw the ad or read an article. You can't do that when a physical mailing goes right into the trash. This move is accelerating, which is why you see papermaking assets associated with publication grades disappearing. Or being adapted to structural grades for packaging.
Another driver for the snail's pace of physical to digital transformation is the rate demographics are shifting. Our beloved older generations never took to a digital life like the younger generations who grew up with a device in their hands. They still need offers and coupons and political ads in physical form, or they would never even see it. Those winds are shifting and easy to forecast. Capital investment is paying attention - data centers or paper mills?
To me, and the people I asked about junk mail, another real problem that surfaces I addressed in a previous column entitled Signal to Noise. We all can miss important mailings due to the fact there is so much junk around it. Who doesn't get frustrated when rifling through a pile of mail and easily misconstrue that important notice or bill? That can be costly when deadlines are missed. Junk mail purveyors have become deceptively slick in making their pieces appear important, when in fact it is just an offer. The really important notices are delivered via registered mail to signify their importance.
A funny personal anecdote when it comes to mail and postage in particular - my deceased father spent a lifetime collecting individual sheets of stamps. All the way from 4 cent stamps to $1 stamps over the course of 50 years. He thought those boxes of unused stamps would garner a fortune from collectors. When he passed and we were clearing out the house, I made an appointment with a stamp appraiser to see how rich we were going to be. The answer was shocking...they are worth face value. Forever stamps did not exist, so it was money spent that did not even keep up with inflation. Now every letter I have to stamp has 6 different denominations that add up to 82 cents. My letters look ridiculous. There was a silver lining though; a few of those sheets lacked the phosphorescent tagging the USPS uses to identify official postage through their sorting systems. Those official mistakes became valuable to collectors.
Perhaps junk mail will become a thing of the past through attrition. Older generations leaving this world, costs growing out of control, and marketing hit rates of targeted promotions not paying off. I look forward to that day. I doubt lawmakers will address the waste of time and resources. For now, our industry will continue to produce the necessary means to fill your mailbox.
Steve Sena (stevesena@me.com) is a Cincinnati native. He obtained degrees in Paper Science & Engineering from Miami University in Oxford, OH and an MBA concentrating in Economics from Xavier University. He's worked for a broad array of leading producers, suppliers, and converters of pulp and paper grades.
