In the waste strategy white paper, published on Thursday, Government stated that it will work with the Direct Marketing Association to allow householders to opt out of receiving unaddressed junk mail.

The environment secretary, David Miliband, also warned the Direct Marketing Association that government is considering replacing the Mailing Preference Service - the industry's opt-out scheme for addressed junk mail - with a much stricter opt-in regime. This would mean people would only receive unsolicited advertisements if they contacted a central register and added their name to a list.

'Challenges to change behaviour'

In its response to the waste strategy, the Direct Marketing Association warned that changing to an opt-in regime would have negative effects for the industry, consumers and Royal Mail. In a statement the industry lobby group said that "a significant number of jobs" depend on the direct mail industry and that "without the revenue generated by direct mail, the ability of Royal Mail to maintain a universal service at a competitive price to the consumer would be severely under threat."

However, the Direct Marketing Association said it does recognise that the consumer has the right to say 'no' and conceded that the industry now faces "a number of challenges to change behaviour".

About time

Critics of the present Mailing Preference Service have welcomed Government's announcements. Stop Junk Mail co-ordinator Robert Rijkhoff commented: "David Miliband is right in saying that recycling and reusing waste is not enough; we need to prevent waste in the first place. Stopping junk mail is a good start. Unsolicited mail is unpopular and it's fairly easy to put a stop to it.

"An opt-in system would mean that the direct marketing industry has to find other, more customer-friendly and less polluting ways of advertising. It is about time the industry recognises that delivering advertisements to people who are not interested does not make sense and we are hopeful that the industry will start focusing on other, more creative ways to promote products and services. A development like this wouldn't necessarily mean that jobs will be lost. On the contrary, it could create jobs."