The agreement set the amount of materials that should be recycled as a proportion of all direct mail at 30% by the end of 2005.
The DMA estimates that in 2004 the proportion of recycled material was approximately 25%.
It has calculated its estimate by starting with the 2001 figure of 13% and factoring in a doubling since then of the number of consumers who put their direct mail in with newspapers for recycling collection, as well as a 60% increase in the level of local authority kerbside collection.
The estimate is contained in the DMA's Environmental Report 2004, which has just been published.
Since the agreement was signed in 2003 the DMA has launched a producer responsibility scheme, and run campaigns with environmental charity Planet Ark covering recycling, the Preference Service and suppressions. It has also carried out consumer and industry research with Experian Intact and has staged an environmental forum event.
In December 2004 it wrote to the UK's top 50 mailers to ask them to sign its Environmental Charter. A DMA spokeswoman said that the number of signatories would be revealed as part of its next environmental campaign in the next few months.
The recycling target goes up to 55% by 2009 and to 70% by 2013.
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