Junk Mail in Encino: Not Green

The junk mail that arrives in my mailbox each day offers discounts and free dinners and free estimates. I realize that many Encino-ites decide from these mailers where their next restaurant meal is going to be and where they might find a reliable flooring tradesman. This involves a prodigious waste of paper but, since we seem to be stuck with it, the retailers and tradesmen spending their valuable ad dollars on this junk mail seem to have no clue how to use “being green” to make their products and services stand out. Only the carpet cleaners, for heaven’s sake, mention being environmentally friendly. The others are missing an opportunity.

If you are a dry cleaner or gardener or an upholsterer or a plumber, for example, couldn’t you at least talk up the idea of being environmentally friendly and mention some of the rebates that are available or the air pollutants that need to be avoided? Yes you would have to be able to justify your claims and yes people here are cynical.

Or perhaps it’s the inverse that is true – the green companies don’t use junk mail since they have other ways to advertise their services? Or perhaps green companies are just lousy marketers? Encino, being a suburb with an elderly population, is ideal for old style marketers, I suppose. Perhaps they just love the thrill of a 30% discount coupon. I don’t; usually I just throw it all in the recycler. I see others doing the same. What a waste.