Of Polls, Politicians and a Breathtaking Lack of Precision…

You’ve got to love democratic process. Short of watching Pop Idol, awaiting the results of last week’s local elections across England and Wales provided a timely double espresso shot of anticipation in the lead-up to an equally welcome Bank Holiday weekend.

My congratulations to all the winners – particularly to Boris Johnson. Finishing first amongst a field of ten in what was perhaps the toughest and most vicious London mayoral contest in living memory is testament to considerable political savvy.

But amongst all the euphoria and political back-slapping, I invite you to spare a thought for the veritable tsunami of political junk mail that has flooded the electorate in recent weeks. Never has the unsuspecting, unsolicited many been junk mailed, door-dropped, handbilled and/or spammed by so few.

This orgy of print media excess has generated tonnes of unwarranted waste as well as a carbon footprint of an enormity probably not seen since an AWOL hoodie named Jack journeyed up the proverbial beanstalk. A case in point: London Elect’s 32-page, A5 Candidates’ Booklet. 5.7 million of these were produced and distributed in mid-April at a total cost of £1.5 million (Source: London Elects Press Release, 15/4/08). Valuable an information source this may well have been to the good burghers of London, but as this item alone, I estimate, had the potential to use around 200 tonnes of paper and emit some 70 tonnes of carbon dioxide, I wonder if this was really an exercise in political sound and fury signifying…?

You be the judge.
Add to this the millions of partisan political manifestos, flyers, letters and inserts produced during the course of the pre-election period and the ecological cost of our democratic process is becomes staggering.
Calculation based on an estimated booklet weight of 40 grams and 0.347826 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per tonne of paper used.