The move comes with just over a year to go before the DMA has to report back to the government on whether or not the industry has met the first set of targets set out in its producer responsibility scheme.
Among these is a collective target for producers of print media and the UK paper industry to recover 30% of materials used next year.
The DMA is keen to promote the use of suppression in order to show that the industry is responsible. Its Suppression Working Party will send out suppression guidelines to members in December.
In addition, it has announced the findings of an industry survey, carried out by Experian Intact, into the use of suppression. This reveals that 30% of businesses do not use any form of third-party suppression. Of these, 27% said this was because they believe the quality of their data is already adequate, and 14% said cost was the key factor stopping them using third-party suppression.
David Robottom, DMA director of postal affairs and industry development, said: "The results of this survey provide the DMA with a clear indication of what still needs to be achieved to improve the standard of UK direct mail and gives us a benchmark that we can use to assess industry performance and report back to the industry on the progress that has been made."
The DMA has been working on a number of environmental initiatives in the last 18 months. It has teamed up with environmental campaigning organisation Planet Ark to promote the Mailing Preference Service to consumers and highlight the brand damage caused to clients by poorly targeted direct mail. It has also backed a campaign to promote recycling, "The BIG recycle", which was launched last month.
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