Public Service Announcement #1: Before I continue with J is for Junk mail, I just want to let you know that we no longer have Internet = no Vonage phone. (In fact I am stealing our neighbors Internet at this moment, with their permission of course!) After a very long and annoying phone call to cancel our Vonage phone service, it is cheaper for us to keep our voicemail for the next 9 months ($15 dollars) than to pay for the disconnection fee right now ($45 dollars). Stupid right? Yeah I thought so too. But the point on the rant is to inform you that you can call our same number and leave us a voice message which is then sent to my email. So, feel free to call us anytime and when we check our email via stealing Internet, we can call you back from our cell phones or a free campus phone (for longer calls)! I am really going to miss these fun experiences in Dominica... 19 days!
Now onto Junk Mail... Yippie:
Here are a few random facts about junk mail in the United States. This information is brought to you by a Maryland based non-profit organization, Center for a New American Dream (CNAD):
- 5.6 million tons of catalogs and other direct mail advertisements end up in U.S. landfills annually.
- The average American household receives unsolicited junk mail equal to 1.5 trees every year—more than 100 million trees for all U.S. households combined.
- 44 percent of junk mail is thrown away unopened, but only half that much junk mail (22 percent) is recycled.
- Americans pay $370 million annually to dispose of junk mail that doesn’t get recycled.
- On average, Americans spend 8 months opening junk mail in the course of their lives.
So eliminating junk mail would save roughly 100 million trees annually. This is one way we can help with that nasty deforestation problem I was talking about earlier! Unfortunately in the USA, we live in a "opt-out" society. Meaning, we are automatically signed up for these junk services, sometimes even without our permission, and it becomes our responsibility to turn off the junk mail. In other countries, they use a "opt-in" service were citizens can sign up for junk mail if they want... wouldn't that be nice?!
Since it is our responsibility, here are a few things we can do:
1. Ask catalog companies to remove you from their lists, and register with a mail-preference service, such as that offered by the Direct Marketing Association Click Here . DMA will list you in the category "Do Not Mail". This service does not guarantee a junk mail free life, but it will greatly reduce the amount you receive. I just registered with DMA. My personal account allows me to stop catalogs, magazine offers, and other mail offers. To opt out of credit cards, see #2 below.
2. Are you tired of receiving credit card applications, insurance companies, and so forth? Visit this website and opt out of receiving junk mail from major companies. OptOutPreScreen.com. (Unfortunately I was unable to visit this particular site because it requires a United States Internet connection.) But it was recommended by several sites.
3. You can also take a moment to write "Please do not sell my name or address" on warranty cards or donation correspondence.
Stop that annoying Junk mail and save a few trees in the process. It is a win-win situation!!
9 comments:
Just from Capital One, we receive at least 2 credit card sign-up requests per week. But that is 2 per name and we even get them for Kendall and Krista.
I don't mind the magazines we get, I know it is a waste of trees, but I am old and being home alone it gives me something to read.
But what gets me is that I have to pay to recycle. Where's the "green" in that?
I hate junk mail more than ANYTHING! And not just for the trees...think of all the poor consumers who don't understand the cleverly disguised "last minute" and "urgent" insurance/credit card applications?My foot the credit card companies are innocent, they didn't trick people (particularly young teenagers and the elderly) to spend outside of their means....
I just got a pile of junk mail sent from my parents house, and there are like 10 "urgent" pieces for my car warranty, and I have to carefully examine them because they look very "official" and who doesn't want their warranty to expire? But alas, all garbage.
UGH.
We have been getting called about our car warranty and how it is about to expire. So Josh decided to mess with them and gave them all this false information about our car and the model... etc. The phonecall was complete phishing. Very annoying. And I agree with you Martha about how it is unfair to take advantage of uninformed consumers. Shame on them!
That is a GREAT idea ... I have been particularly annoyed at our mortgage company; we get more junk from them than anyone else and we're already a customer! With the ease of email, it's silly that more companies don't take advantage of that option. Even most coupons are available online; I hope more companies will get on board with more electronic options & less paper.
(See, I don't *always* disagree with you!)
Refreshing. But it's not the disagreeing that bugs me. And I think we can all agree that junk mail is super annoying, especially from an organization you are already patronizing.
I like junk mail...it makes me feel special and loved :)
Thanks for listing those websites; I can't wait for my mail to go down. Another thing I've done is signed up for all my bills and bank statements to be sent by email instead of by regular mail. It's really made a difference in the amount of things I have to shred each month and I no longer accumulate stacks of payment envelopes and useless newsletters and inserts from the power company, etc.
Kristin you stole my O idea (Online bill pay)!! I tried switching my paper statements at my one bank to e-statements and their policy required them to send me an actual paper copy of my bank statement every single month. Lame!
Oops...sorry!
No worries!
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