Business services organisation BSI and the Direct Marketing Association has developed a new assessment and certification scheme to reduce landfill and increase recycling.

The PAS 2020 Direct Marketing Environmental Performance assessment and certificationi s designed to help marketing organisations take a more sustainable approach to their activities and reduce the amount of paper that ends up in landfill.

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA), which represents about 900 members involved in the direct mail and promotions industry, signed a voluntary producer responsibility agreement with the Government in July 2003 to raise recycling levels to 30 per cent by the end of 2005, 55 per cent by the end of 2009 and 70 per cent by the end of 2012.

Victoria Barron, product marketing manager for sustainability at BSI explains, "Failure to meet these targets could result in millions of pounds of punitive fines by the EU.

"As a consequence there are some strong drivers for the direct marketing industry to demonstrate a more responsible and sustainable approach to these kinds of promotional activities when it comes to protecting the environment.

Currently, the UK disposes of 11.55 million tonnes of biodegradable municipal waste in landfill sites. The EU Landfill Directive requires this figure to be reduced to 11.2m tonnes by 2010; 7.5 million tonnes by 2013 and 5.2 million tonnes by 2020. About 5.4 billion items of direct mail and promotional materials are sent out every year - much of which ends up in landfills.

PAS 2020 was developed by BSI in conjunction with the DMA and other key parties to help the industry respond to these pressures.  The specification focuses on establishing a set of environmental objectives, performance levels and indicators for different environmental aspects of a direct marketing campaign.

The specification sets out requirements relating to both organisations with overall responsibility for direct marketing campaigns and to suppliers of activities relating to the provision of a direct marketing campaign such as direct marketing agencies, printers, mail houses, distribution service providers and field marketers.

A formal launch of the scheme will take place on 19 March 2010 where presentations will be given from organisations that have already gone through the assessment and certification process.