Leafleting is a core part of political campaigning. It’s how we communicate to everyone, rather than staying in the ‘bubbles’ that social media can create.
To be an effective democracy, voters need to know who they are voting for and what they stand for, so they can make informed choices. A leaflet through everyone’s door, a letter to every voter, is part of getting that message out.
The big parties have a huge advantage here- money. Leaflets, and all communication (even Facebook ads cost money) require funds. Political funding from central government is dependent on the size of the vote gained, so the Green Party struggles to ‘level up. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01663/
So leaflets matter to ensure we reach everyone. They also work, even in the information age, to change voters minds. There’s not a lot of publicly available evidence about this, but here’s one fascinating study that shows a single leaflet can have an effect:
The challenge is, as Green Party members, we are united in our passion for caring for the environment. We make the biggest impact when we have elected representatives. So how do we do that while having the smallest possible environmental impact?
We have to try to mitigate what we do. Our leaflets are usually delivered by hand, by volunteers. We use everything we print- saving any leftovers and handing out at events (well, when events happen). We produce the smallest possible leaflet to get the message across. We use recycled paper, even though it is more expensive.
What would help is more funds, and more votes! If you are able to donate towards a specific campaign, or more generally, that would help us greatly.
Bonus extra information!
If you want to know the detail, here are the sums on 10000 sheets of A4 / A5:
| CO2e kg | CO2e kg | ||
| Sheets | Size | Total landfill + virgin | Total Recycled and recycled |
| 10000 | A4 | 134.9330368 | 52.340976 |
| 10000 | A5 | 67.4665184 | 26.170488 |
Best case 10,000 A5 sheets of recycled paper and recycled afterwards is 26kg of CO2e.
Worse case 10,000 A4 sheets on virgin paper and sent to landfill is 135kg of CO2e.
Using the UK Government’s official Greenhouse gas reporting conversion factors 2020.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/greenhouse-gas-reporting-conversion-factors-2020
This doesn’t take into account the delivery of the paper and the printing/ink.
And just to give that some context, here’s a link to food products CO2e kg:
https://www.blonkconsultants.nl/2017/12/07/environmental-impact-of-meat-substitutes/?lang=en
