Why mail matters.

It was with great interest that we read Steven Krieger's commentary, "Junk Mail Meets Democracy: How to Stop the Flow" (Our Planet, www.emag azine.com/view/?3436.). Kreiger tells readers that it takes "100 million trees" to produce the paper used for the nation's advertising mail.

According to the EPA's report: "Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2005 Facts and Figures," the U.S. uses 5.83 million tons of paper in a year for Standard A (advertising) mail. However, 2.09 million (35.8 percent) was recycled, meaning that 3.74 million tons came from trees. If we multiply 3.74 million tons x 2,000 pounds we get 7.48 billion pounds of paper. Divided by 100 million trees that would mean each Kreiger "tree" yields 74.8 pounds of paper.

Does this sound reasonable? Or does it make more sense to believe that paper typically comes from commercial tree farms and recycling rather than clumps of midget trees?

While mail volume would drop under Kreiger's plan, fixed expenses would remain largely in place. That means the cost to use the Postal Service--a system paid for by users and not with federal subsidies--would now be divided among fewer users and less mail volume. The result: Vastly higher stamp prices. And jobs would be lost nationwide at one of the largest sources of employment inside our borders.

There's a very simple mechanism to automatically reduce ad mail volume: the marketplace. If consumers don't want the products offered by mailers, then mailers will not spend money to market through the mailstream. Kreiger suggests that nonprofit organizations such as his own should be exempt from the mailing ban he proposes for others. But why should a neighborhood pizzeria be barred from the mailstream? Or a minority business? Or a new company seeking its first customers? Why should E be prohibited from seeking new subscribers?

Kreiger says several states have considered mail bans but not one has passed such legislation. In addition to an unwillingness to create local unemployment, lawmakers no doubt recall the words of former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas who said freedom of speech includes not only the right to utter and to print, but also "the right to distribute" and "the right to receive."

Peter G. Miller

Executive Director, Mail & Jobs Coalition

Silver Spring, MD