According to organizations that bring together senior citizens, printed flyers are the only source of information about discount events for many senior citizens. But the upcoming recycling fee may sound the death knell for them. It may no longer be profitable for merchants to have flyers printed, so they will probably only keep their online form.
However, quite a few pensioners have not encountered it yet. “We perceive the ministry’s actions as limiting free access to information and social discrimination of seniors,” said the head of the Council of Senior Citizens of the Czech Republic (RSČR), Lenka Desatová, last week. According to her, information about discounts is essential for people of advanced age, especially now, after the high inflation of the past years.
However, the Ministry of the Environment insists on restricting leaflets. “Paper flyers should be limited and minimized. About 4 billion pieces of leaflets are produced annually, which means 400 pieces per inhabitant,” office press spokesperson Veronika Krejčí told Bleska. In the opinion of the Ministry, this is a significant overproduction.
“The number of households that purposefully reject leaflets is increasing. It often happens that leaflets are just thrown freely in front of the entrances of houses.” explains his steps. The mentioned amount, which represents an annual load of leaflets weighing 20,000 tons, is also said to require a lot of resources for their recycling and addressing the impact on the environment. “So introducing a ‘recycling’ charge for manufacturers is a logical step in straightening out the system,” explained Krejci Bleska.
According to her statement, merchants and the buying public have enough time to prepare for the transition to the digital form of leaflets. “The amendment will not be effective until 2025 at the earliest, until then flyer producers have enough time to come up with a solution aimed especially at seniors who do not use the online environment on their computer or phone,” stated. Flyers are said to be part of the digital space today. According to the office, it is essential to send leaflets to e-mail boxes and mobile applications.
However, the results of research by the Nielsen agency, commissioned by the RSČR in July, show that for 74% of people over 70 years of age, printed flyers are the only way they learn about discount events. At the same time, according to the same survey, 90% of people of retirement age shop at events. 75% of people over the age of 60 prefer printed leaflets to digital ones.
According to data from the Czech Statistical Office, 34.8% of people between the ages of 65 and 74 did not have access to the Internet last year. A quarter of people in this period of their lives have never even used the web. And only a little over a third of people over 75 use the digital environment. “From all the data presented, it clearly follows that an alternative in the form of online leaflets or mobile applications for seniors is out of the question,” said Desatová to the i60.cz server.