Letters

And the Award for Junk Mail Goes to...

I appreciated the article "Is It Third-Class Mail, or Catalogs of Woe?" May 20. The different names given to "junk mail" show the many facets to this problem. The direct-mailer's "advertising mail" is the Postal Service's third-class mail, the politically correct person's "unsolicited mail," and the average person's "junk mail." The effort of the National Waste Prevention Coalition to encourage direct mailers to be less wasteful by giving Junk Mail Awards may be the best way to reduce waste.

There is also the problem of unsolicited advertising in newspapers. How much of the advertising in newspapers, particularly Sunday editions, ends up in landfills? If the amount of unsolicited advertising in Sunday papers were collected for a year, I am certain that it would amount to more than 66 pounds of unwanted mail that William Hughes, co-director of The Garbage Project at the University of Arizona at Tucson, collected at his mailbox. A Newspaper Advertising Award similar to the Junk Mail Award may be the best way to reduce this waste.

Robert A. Brown

Reading, Mass.