Eco-Friendly Tip #2: Get Rid of Junk Mail
Okay friends, this post is going to be half rant and half tip… just fair warning for you!
In my quest to become more environmentally friendly, I have waged a battle against the Junk Mail Mafia (aka the United States Postal Service). I like to recycle, you see, but I realized I was recycling a ton of paper I didn’t ask for: circulars, credit card offers, coupons, etc. Well, I finally got tired of it.
In fact, just yesterday I got an offer from The Indianapolis Star. I politely wrote "Refuse / RTS" (Return to Sender), only to have a note from my mailman that said, "can’t take it back, if you don’t want it, throw it away."
Now this really ticked me off. It’s like these companies are paying the postal service to deliver crap that I don’t want and then making it my responsibility to throw it away. I wanted to give the postal carrier a piece of my mind, but he was correct, unless it says "Return Service Corrected," he can’t take it back.
And you can’t really blame the postal carrier, he’s just doing his job. After all, according to a Newsweek article in 2008, direct mail accounts for 52% of all mail delivered by the USPS. With all the money the USPS is losing, why would the postal service want to help me in my crusade against junk mail? That would mean lost revenue and an even bigger deficit for them!
Well, I do have to tell you that my junk mail has gone down in number and I am going to pass along this great advice to you. It will make your mailbox feel five pounds lighter!
Here’s how you reduce (and possibly eliminate) your junk mail:
STEP 1: Go to the Direct Mail Marketing Association web site and opt-out. Most of the major marketers are a part of this service. If you opt-out here, this should settle a lot of your problems.
STEP 2: Stop credit card offers by going to OptOutPrescreen.com. This should stop most, if not all of your credit card offers.
STEP 3: Check your circulars to see where they’re coming from. For example, I get circulars from Red Plum (click here to opt-out of their list). You’ll also want to look at other places like Advo and Valpak, if they have a web site, they should have a link for you to opt-out.
STEP 4: Send it back when you can. With the credit card offers, I would just take all the stuff they mailed me, circle my address in big red marker, and write "REMOVE FROM BULK MAIL LIST." I’d stuff all that into the pre-paid envelope and send it back. So far, it has worked. With other organizations, you may have to go to their web site and send them an e-mail telling them to stop. If they don’t, you can go to the Post Office and fill out a form to block mail from them. For me, Citi Bank was the worst, they’d send me three or more credit card offers a week. They only stopped after I complained about them on Twitter (thank you interwebz!).
So there you go, friends. I think I covered all the bases. I’ve been on this crusade for a month or two and I have noticed results. Now if I can just get The Indianapolis Star to quit sending me their Carmel Star, I should be good. Just so you know, the Carmel Star (and the variations you receive on your side of town) is a horrible attempt to get you to read week-old stories and to bombard you with advertising. No thanks!