The body condemned as 'outrageous' a proposal by environment minister Michael Meacher that the DM industry should pay for the kerbside collection of DM materials by local authorities. It said it wanted an urgent meeting with officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to address the issue.
If implemented, such a measure would undoubtedly increase the cost of DM to advertisers, undermining the medium's effectiveness at a time when marketing budgets are facing greater scrutiny.
The DMA has also rejected a suggestion by Meacher that the industry should increase the recycling rate for direct mail from 13% to 70% as soon as possible.
Referring to the self-regulatory code of practice contained in the industry's Direct Mail Producer Responsibility Scheme, the DMA said it had already proposed recycling targets of 27% by 2005, 45% by 2010 and 55% by 2015.
While it had agreed to future revisions of the 2015 target, the DMA said it had yet to receive a formal response to the proposals from Defra.
A DMA spokeswoman said: "In the development of the code and the Direct Mail Producer Responsibility Scheme, the prospect of funding local authorities has never been raised and has never been part of the scheme."
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