About 2 months ago, I was at our local farmer's market and happened across a booth that had information on recycling. I asked a few questions about recycleables that I didn't know if I could recycle or not. Then the lady gave me a pamphlet on decreasing junk mail. At first I didn't think we were getting too much junk mail, but when I got home, I looked at the bin by my desk and realized it's ALWAYS FULL! Right then I decided I was on a mission to cut down on the junk mail we recieve. So I followed the steps in the booklet. It was not too hard to get off of the majority of mailing lists. There were a few annoying ones - like the weekly mailer that has local ads that everyone gets, but eventually those have stopped coming! So, now it's been a couple of months and I have noticed a dramatic decline in mail that we get, because it's not junk mail filling up our box! There are days when we get no mail at all and we'll check a few times during the day to make sure we really didn't get mail.
"Each year about 675 pieces of junk mail end up in every mailbox - a whopping 4 million tons nationwide" (quote from the Metro pamphlet) That's astonishing to me!
I'll share a few resources with you so that you too can help the environment by not contributing to the excess costs of junk mail!
1. Catalog Choice - This is the one that helped the most! It's free to sign up and they have hundreds of catalogs that they will do the legwork and remove you from their lists. This way you are not calling EVERY 800 number from EVERY catalog. This one is really simple. They do suggest you have your catalog handy, so that you can provide your customer number, but it's not really neccessary. You can also remove other members of your household from these catalogs too, so there's no need for multiple accounts. CC does not send very many emails either (once a year maybe?), so no junk email to sift through.
2. If you're getting mail from charities that you no longer want to donate to, or they send too many letters, you can check out their individual websites and most of the time they have a link to remove yourself from their mailing list. Also, you can take the card they send you and write on it "remove me from your mailing list" (or something along those lines) and they usually take you off. However, if you donate to them again, you will be back on their list. I'd like to think you're doing them a favor, because they wont have to waste money on sending you something you're going to end up not opening anyway.
3. Oregon Metro - is where I got the pamphlet originally and they have a lot of numbers for you to call, or websites for you to contact to get off of mailing lists. Included are: Equifax, InfoUSA, Experion Consumer Services, Valassis, Abacus, Acxiom and Cox Target Media (Valpak coupons). Yeah, I've never heard of them either, but apparently they are behind all that junk mail we get!! I would suggest googling those places for their websites, then you don't have to call them up. It might take more leg work on you're part though.
4. Check out the credit bureaus: Transunion, Equifax and Experian at this opt out prescreen site. This stops the credit card offers from coming! We were getting about 1 every day! The opt-out for life seemed more official, because I sent them a request through their website and a week later, they sent me a form to fill out and mail back to them. I had to sign off that I really did not want offers anymore, I even added Owen's name to the "names I'm known by" and apparently that was ok, because he's not getting them either. You can also do a 5 year opt out online.
5. Stop junk mail before it starts - Don't fill out forms with your mailing address. Kind of simple if you think about it, but one that I know I'm guilty of. I like to enter into drawings for prizes, but they can turn around and sell your info. Make sure to check the box to opt out of unwanted mailings (if there is one.)
Well, I hope this helps you out and reduce the amount of paper you recycle! Everyone wants to be greener these days and this is one small, mostly easy way to do that!
Fastest Summer Ever
2 years ago
4 comments:
Thanks for sharing Rachel!
If you get junk mail from someplace that won't stop, here's a sure cure: Tear out the section with your name and address on it. Put it inside their postage paid return envelope. Stuff the return envelope with as much bits from your shredder as you can get in there. Mail it back to them. They pay by the ounce to get it from the post office. Once they open that envelope full of trash, your name will come off their list PRONTO! Had to do this to a couple places and it works wonders.
Another thing you can do is contact the Direct Marketing Association - they maintain what they call a "pander" list. It's a list that marketers are required to suppress from their prospect mailings. Companies like ours (I work for a Coop Marketing Database - we help send you all those catalogs you never asked for) will suppress it unless it's for someone you have an existing relationship for. And FYI - Catalog Choice is a nice concept, but we're not required to do anything with the names they take. But we will with the DMA. Here's the info I could find on their website (I think this is the right place) - Consumer Information (Manage Your Mail)
consumer@the-dma.org 212.768.7277, ext. 1888
Do you think it would stop junk mail from election candidates? Here we are in September and I'm getting bombarded with all the stuff.
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