To limit waste and waste of paper, the government wants to fight against the proliferation of prospectuses. A device will be tested from September 1st.
Here is a major change that could soon occur on your mailboxes: it will no longer be a question of affixing a “stop pub” sticker, but, on the contrary, a “Yes pub”. Concretely, it would no longer be a question of indicating that you do not wish to receive, in the middle of your mail, the latest promotions on lawn mowers or the ranges of canned peas from a private label, but rather to show that you deliberately wish to receive paper advertising. 13 municipalities and municipal authorities will thus, from 1 September, experiment with this new system.
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Implementation of the “Stop pub” system in 2004
More than 800,000 tons of unsolicited printed matter, 89% of which are advertisements, are distributed each year in France according to the Ministry of Ecological Transition. Each household would also receive more than 30 kilos of advertisements, promotions or other hype directly in the middle of their mail. However, the Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) estimates that a large part of this paper advertising – 44% according to a 2021 study – is systematically thrown away without even being read. This observation had also led certain brands, such as Monoprix, to stop “limp“, after having estimated in 2007 that 90% of its advertisements ended up directly in the trash without even having been consulted.
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In order to combat thismailbox jam“, which leads to a significant production of paper waste, the government had, initially, set up the system “Stop Advertising“. As a logical continuation of the National Waste Prevention Plan of 2004, the sticker specifically indicating the refusal of an individual to receive unsolicited advertisements had been created. Between 2004 and 2008, nearly 9 million stickers “Stop advertisingwould thus have been placed on French mailboxes according to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, thanks to the mobilization of local authorities who were then determined to reduce waste.
15 municipalities and municipal authorities are experimenting with this new system
However, although 30% of the mailboxes in the country are decked out with this famous badge and the financial penalties for groups that continue to “limp” in households that have explicitly expressed their refusal to receive them have been increased , the number of advertisements is still too high. Hence the idea of changing perspective, of initiating a fundamental reversal of the approach hitherto used to combat advertising waste, by developing the sticker “Yes Ad“. An information campaign around this initiative, directly resulting from the Climate and Resilience Law of July 20, 2021, thus began at the beginning of May. Its concrete application would, however, take place from September 1, 2022.
According to the Decree of May 2, 2022, thirteen municipalities and communities of municipalities in France will therefore experiment, from this date, with the new system. [liste en fin d’article]before two others join them from 2023. The idea “to experiment” the “yes adallows the public authorities, initially, to assess its effectiveness in relation to that of “Stop advertisingto fight against the production of paper waste. Moreover, “An evaluation committee will also be set up to evaluate […] its consequences on employment, on the sectors of activity concerned, on consumer behavior, but also on the possible difficulties of generalizing such a measureaccording to the website of the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
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This measure, although it constitutes an essential link in the government system aimed at developing more responsible advertising, is of great concern to professionals in the “graph paper“. Indeed, the latter represents, in France, more than 310,000 jobs, which moreover often turn out to be part-time. Sector already weakened by the deployment ofStop advertising», the generalization of the ban on limping should largely discourage large distributors from using the services of companies specializing in print advertising.
List of municipalities and communities of municipalities participating in the experimentation of the “yes ad» according to Decree No. 2022-765 of May 2, 2022:
- SMICTOM (Mixed Intermunicipal Syndicate for the Collection and Treatment of Household Waste) of the Pays de Fougères
- City of Bordeaux
- SMICVAL (Mixed Intercommunal Syndicate for Collection and Valorization) Libournais Haute Gironde
- Agglomeration of Agen
- Community of communes Leff Armor
- City of Sartrouville
- Metropolis of Greater Nancy
- Grenoble Alps Metropolis
- SYTRAD (Ardèche Drôme waste treatment union)
- SICTOBA (Intermunicipal union for the collection and treatment of household waste in Basse Ardèche)
- Community of communes Ubaye Valley Serre-Ponçon
- UNIVALOM (Joint Syndicate for the treatment and recovery of waste)
- SYVADEC (Union for the Valorization of Waste from Corsica)
Troyes Champagne Métropole and the Urban Community of Dunkirk Grand Littoral “will join the experiment once their local household waste prevention program has been voted, for the start of the information phase on December 1, 2022 and the distribution restriction phase on February 1, 2023according to the website of the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
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