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Mail-houses are under increasing pressure to be greener from both customers and the government. In addition, plans to introduce a new environmental standard for direct mail have sparked a heated debate.

The standard aims to eradicate laminations, non-biodegradable plastic wrapping and polystyrene envelope windows. On top of that, it proposes that all direct mail should consist of 75% recycled fibre with 75% of inks used having to be vegetable-based. Polywrap could also be on the way out.

The voluntary PAS 2020 standard was proposed by the British Standards Institute and endorsed by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). But the plans have been
met with scepticism from some who feel the changes are unrealistic.

Richard Maclean, sales director at Integra says: “You have to look at the pros and cons. The use of recycled paper is a good idea but polywrap is a by-product of the petrol and oil industry – that’s difficult to get rid of.”

Despite the calls for the DM sector to become greener it continues to grow and, in general, the market has remained steady for mailroom equipment with minimal changes in technology. Rather than focusing on speed, manufacturers want customers to realise the benefits of shorter makeready and turnaround times.

“At Drupa, Sitma were not showing their fastest products – instead they had automated machines with quicker set-up,” says Maclean. “It doesn’t matter how fast a machine will cycle as you can only run it as fast as the material will go and as fast as the operators can keep up,” adds  Paul Garner, sales manager at Mailing & Mechanisation UK. “More time should be spent considering production consistency and the flexibility of the work types the machines can handle.”

Potential buyers should view the machine running live work, rather than demonstration stock, says Garner. “Nine times out of 10 people buy machines that will only work using perfect stock,” he adds. Integra’s McLean also cautions: “Long term, cheaper machines are a false economy as they’re expensive to run.”

But ultimately the skill of the operator is just as important, explains Muller Martini’s technical product manager, John Gissing. “There is a trend to invest heavily in equipment but not in people – you need to invest in the people that will be operating these machines.”

WHAT'S NEW IN MAILOOM EQUIPMENT
• Buhrs updated its envelope-inserting equipment by launching an improved version of its BB7OO. The manufacturer upgraded the machine’s speed from 14,000 packets per hour (pph) to 16,000pph. A new SF2 Shuttle Feeder was also introduced to handle thicker and heavier products such as catalogues
• In April Co-operative Financial Services announced a £12m partnership with Xerox, which will overhaul the company’s mail-handling and distribution system. The six-year roll-out will enable the firm’s mailroom to handle more than 10,000 postal items a day
• The Office of Fair Trading cleared the £27.2m acquisition of UK-based PFE International by global mailroom giant Neopost
• KAS Paper Systems launched its Mailwrap polywrapper system at Drupa. The machine can handle sizes from CD width to over A4 at a maximum speed of 5,000pph. The Mailwrap features feeders that are interchangeable between the polywrapper and envelope inserter