Use these nine tips to help
save some of the 100 million trees chopped down annually to produce junk mail
in the United States:
Register your name with the Direct Marketing
Association's Mail Preference Service. After you do this, the
DMA will add you to its "Do Not Mail" database.
If you do business with a company via mail services, it will put
you on its contact list. So the first time you make a transaction (such as
placing an order) with that company, ask to be put on its "in-house suppress" or "do not
promote" lists. Tell the company not to
"rent" or share your name with other companies.
To stop junk mail from credit card, mortgage, and insurance
companies, try going to OptOutPreScreen.com
which allows you to remove your name from lists generated by the four
major credit bureaus-- Equifax, Innovis, TransUnion, and Experian.
Get the Stop the
Junk Mail Kit from the Consumer Research Institute. This
kit comes with pre-addressed postcards for you to send to companies that
send you those annoying catalogs, wasteful postcards, and unnecessary
brochures.
Several subscription services will reduce your
junk mail for you. You can
pay a fee to join Stop the Junk Mail which offers an online service to
reduce junk mail. Also, check out GreenDimes - for a dime a day, this service will
reduce your junk mail and plant a tree in your name every month.
If you're fed up with other types of junk (faxes, email, phone calls,
etc.), take a look at JunkBusters.com.
Try calling the phone number listed under the publisher details on the junk mail.
Often if you call or email, the company will remove you from the mailing
list for a publication.
Yahoo! Green invites you to:
Kick the catalogs
Reduce the number of catalogs jamming your mailbox by 75%. We'll show you how to do it, and lower your CO2 emissions by 30 lbs this year.
If you've done everything above and there's still a trickle of junk
still getting through, try one of
these "Return to Waster" stamps,
stamp the junk, and put it into a mailbox. Unless the marketer paid for first-class
mail, the the junk isn't likely to make it back to the company; stamping
the junk is more of an act of protest. The more people who do it, however,
the more attention the issue will get.
Huddler's tight-knit
community of eco-minded consumers share their knowledge about sustainable
products and services ranging from electric cars to organic toothpaste. Click here to participate.
To stop junk mail I been using the Stop Junk Mail it provides me with a central location in which I can stop the junk mail and solicitations from more than 1300 catalogs and more than 5000 charity/nonprofit organizations, credit card companies, banks and data brokers, and stoping the delivery of national phone books. This green also will plant trees with each new membership. So vist www.MyJunkTree.com and give it a try.
Posted by maxinatlanta76 Fri Nov 7, 2008 8:25pm PST
Thanks for the post.
You can also sign do not mail petition ( like Do Not Call National Petition)
I did some search online and this is the best resource so far available online ( correct me if I am wrong). I have done this 5 months ago and my mailbox is literally empty ( I have paperless billing and also opted out from various mail lists) I check my mail twice a month now. It is beautiful. ( What a freedom).
I even took the letter from samples provided and wrote it to a local Chinese restaurant that keeps putting fliers in my door. They stopped too in the whole subdivision.
Save the time for yourself.
http://awakening.weebly.com/stop-junk-mail.html
I even opted out from the yellow book. What do I need it for, since the internet is right here.
Posted by mgman752000 Sat Nov 22, 2008 11:58am PST
Use my trick. Put "not interested" on the card or letter to go back. Now put all there paper work including the envelope it came in the postage paid envelope. It should come back to them postage due. They will pay for it and get "nothing". Works for me
Arte F, if your mail carrier is not delivering all your mail, including your "junk mail" he should be fired. That is against postal regulations. It is not his/her job to determine what you consider junk. We had a carrier fired in our office for doing that exact some thing. If you are tipping your carrier in an effort to promote this conduct, you are guilty of bribery.
they can send me all there junk mail they want as long as it is on paper i want the mail man to delver all of it i will burn it in the wood stove for heat
I am a letter carrier in Overland Park, Ks. & I agree with atsvsdv. We get paid a good salary to deliver ALL mail so if you're telling your carrier not to deliver 'junk mail' & he's not delivering it he's in violation of Postal regulations & should be punished. I deliver all mail that I take out because that's what the sender has paid us to do. I don't understand why someone would risk their Postal career by not delivering, throwing away, hoarding or destroying mail?? That's just insane!! I feel there is a trust factor between myself & my customers that they receive all their mail everyday...even if it is 'junk'!!
Posted by robett4806@sbcglobal.net Sat Nov 22, 2008 4:11pm PST
Arte F., your initial comment made it sound as if you tipped your carrier solely for the reason of getting him to stop delivering your "junk mail". Collectively, those companies pay the Post Office a lot of money to have the carriers deliver their ads and that's what we, as carriers are obligated/required to do. And 'atsvsdv' is correct in stating that it is not our job to determine what the customer might consider junk mail. I get this request frequently and refuse it every time. And besides, numerous credit card companies mail solicitations via First Class Mail which may fit your definition of "junk mail" but by no means fits any USPS definition of "junk mail". Oh, and tip #8 won't work because "Return to Waster" is not an official endorsement. Once a piece of mail leaves the carriers hands, it becomes the customer's property. In the case of unwanted First Class, Second Class or Bulk Rate Mail with a Service Request, a simple "refused" written on the mail piece and placed back in the box will ensure that it gets returned to sender. In the case of unwanted Bulk Rate Mail (junk mail) with no Service Request, it becomes trash and we're no more obligated to take those from your box as we are any other form of garbage. And throwing that type of mail in a collection box is useless for numerous reasons as well. It's still not going to make it to the person it needs to get to in order to stop it and in fact, it may very well end up right back in your mailbox. On top of that, it would be the equivalent of throwing an empty soda can in there because it's all garbage. If you don't want it than burn it, recycle it or throw it away! If you want to stop "junk mail", then have your name removed from the mailing lists of companies sending it to you! Happy Holidays!
Posted by Dolphin _79605 Sat Nov 22, 2008 5:01pm PST
The USPS solicits junk mail accounts to bolster their revenue. They consider it their right. I feel making a living off of people who do not wish a product forced onto them is wrong. Just say NO to junk mail.
Good idea, stop junk mail. Put another few thousand mail carriers out of work. But hey you wont get a little piece of paper in your mail box, so who cares about mail carriers families, you whinny @ss yuppies.
Posted by Bill Roberts Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:14am PDT
kathy, my partner, wife, Mother to our kids and best friend, I dont know what to do with out You and then there are days id like to find out. You changed my life
from hell to heven. I Love you Kathy D.
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