More than 70% of respondents in the Direct Mail Association's (DMA) latest sustainability report claimed that email was the communication route with "the least environmental impact".

In contrast, just 9% of respondents considered direct mail to be environmentally friendly.

However, direct mail printers have questioned the environmental credentials of online communications, which come with an associated power usage that is often ignored.

John Ellis, group sales director at Sunline Direct, said: "With emails, there is the power required for the computer and that isn't that environmental.

"Direct mail gets a bad reputation but those views stem from the old days when mail was unaddressed on deliveries. Current DMA guidelines offer best practice, such as mailing to the right people and ensuring that it is being done in an economical way."

The survey also revealed that 50% of people view polythene wrapping on direct mail as "the worst" environmental offence.

However, Ellis claimed this is a misconception and argued that the direct mail industry has sound environmental credentials.

"There are alternatives to polythene. Lots of mailings are biodegradable and we encourage people to recycle," he said. "However, this is down to local government. Local government doesn't separate plastics like they do with paper and glass.

"Our company uses starch-based film and biodegradable products. Many people don't want to pay for the starch-based products as it is expensive. The biodegradable polythene that we offer is one of the most popular lines in our stock."

Lucy Edwards, assistant managing director at Howard Hunt, acknowledged that direct mail received unfair attention in the national media.

She said: "It would take a year's worth of direct mail to equal the amount of newspapers going to landfill in one day. People's environmental perceptions of direct mail are completely wrong.

"If you get data right and you target the right people with the right message, the direct mail will not be seen as junk and we will lose the junk mail tag."

Edwards added that the government should be lobbied about the benefits of direct mail, in order to clean up the industry's image.

"The DMA needs to lobby government to make them understand marketing communications. We need to give them the facts and tell them about the amount of people we employ," she said.

"This would help get us off the hit-list of the awful things in the world. The direct mail industry is important to the economy."