Direct mailer saves $500,000 by recycling

In an effort to decrease the cost of its waste removal and reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfills, direct mail and marketing firm PEP-Direct Inc. has partnered with biomass fuel manufacturer International Paper Products Corp.

PEP estimates it will save just under $500,000 a year through the partnership, through which IPP provided signage and receptacles for PEP's non-recyclable materials such as label stock and packaging. The companies have been working together for about a month.

Andrea Manseau, PEP's sales and marketing specialist, said implementing the process was simple. “It's just putting items in a different receptacle…it's like putting something in a recycling bin.”

IPP, based in Westfield, MA, will travel up to 100 miles from its plant for a pickup, once or twice a week. PEP-Direct is based in Wilton, NH. Mark Dupuis, president of IPP, said this process usually “reduces [a company's] disposal costs by half.”

IPP then compacts the waste into Enviro-Fuelcubes, which are burned in place of fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This eco-friendly effort is something PEP is using to promote a greener image.

“There's a stigma on the direct mail industry because we're producing junk mail and waste in such huge quantities that if we can use what was previously unrecyclable to help the environment, by all means [we will],” Manseau said. “It helps the environment, it helps the company save a significant amount of money; it's huge.”

IPP currently works with approximately 100 industrial, commercial and retail companies, and is working on funding to expand to 15 states across the US, Canada and the Middle East.

Manseau said, “It just happens to work great for direct mail companies and direct marketing companies because we have all that label stock and [other products] that we'd have to send to a landfill.”