Yes/no stickers to be replaced by online junk mail register

The ja/nee stickers on letter boxes, alerting delivery workers to whether or not the occupant is happy to get junk mail and advertising leaflets, will be a thing of the past if direct mail association MailDB has its way.

The association is working on an online alert system InMijnBus.nl which households can use to say if they will accept advertising leaflets or not.

‘At the moment, 35% of households close their letter boxes to leaflets but we expect this to rise to 50% with the new system,’ MailDB director Thomas Hopman told the Telegraaf. ‘And that means less unread paper will end up in the recycling bins.’

The new system, which will also cover local free newspapers, will come into effect nationwide in 2023 although the roll-out will begin this July. Every household will eventually get a card in their letterbox inviting them to state their preferences in the system via an app. The preference register is connected to the address, not the person.

Hopman told the paper that the new initiative is not connected to Amsterdam and Rotterdam’s decision to introduce yes/yes stickers, so that only people who say they want the leaflets will get them.

‘Two in three people read them almost every week,’ he said. ‘People would appear to like browsing them over a cup of tea and thinking about what they are going to buy.’

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