QuickieLearning – Go “Green” and Stop Junk Mail

This QuickieLearning ™ article describes how learners can help save the planet while stopping a major nuisance – unsolicited junk mail.

Why You Should Stop Junk Mail

Like millions of Americans, you probably find yourself discarding multiple pieces of junk mail every day.  So why is our government continuing to actively waste precious natural resources and polluting our environment, especially when we hear so much talk about how “serious” they are about stopping the threat of “Global Warming.” Following are procedures for stopping junk mail.

Consider this… how many US citizens really look forward to, and benefit from receiving so much junk mail? Assuming the vast majority of us actually despise receiving junk mail, and a good majority of us want to be good stewards of the environment, and assuming that our elected officials really want to do right by its citizens, then shouldn’t the government immediately ban unsolicited paper-based spam with the same rigor as that which has been applied to unsolicited phone calls (do-not-call list) and laws regarding email spam.

Stopping Junk Mail at the Source

Here are some suggestions for how you can get involved and stop a real nuisance all at the same time:

• Online Opt-Out Service: http://www.dmachoice.org – The United States Post Office has partnered with the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) to most efficiently get junk mail into your local landfill via your household. As a result, you must go through this group to stop unsolicited mailings that filter through this agency. Fortunately, the process is fairly easy:

1. Go to  www.dmachoice.org and click the Get Started link in the top-right area of the screen.
2. Create a user account by giving them your name, address, and email address. You’ll receive an email with a link to click to activate your account.
3. Log in to the website and click “Manage my Mail”
4. You can stop all junk mail from the following areas:
   • Credit Card Offers, Catalogs, Magazine Offers, and other mail offers.
   • You can selectively remove specific organizations from sending you mailings (there are thousands) or just click the “Stop All Mailings” for that category.

Stopping junk mail that sneaks past the DMA

• Start a Junk Mail Pile: The real insidious junk mail (like weeds that you just cant seem to kill off) will be all that shows up in your box now. By law, marketing companies have to disclose who they are and how to reach them. Hold on to your junk mail and, when time permits, look up the contact phone number for them on the Internet. Give them a call and ask to be removed from their mailings. Sometimes you can opt-out via their website. Here are just a few examples:
  • Valassis.com: These folks distribute those newspaper insert looking ads. They operate under the banner “Red Plum”. You can opt-out from their junk mail here: Junk Mail Opt-Out
  • Harry and David Catalog: If you call the main ordering line and give them the code that appears on the back cover, they can have you off the list very quickly.

Other actions to opt-out of Junk Mail

• Place a “No Junk Mail” sticker on your mailbox: Printout and tape to the front of your mail box a notice to your postal carrier “NO JUNK MAIL”. You may also want to list a few items such as “including Shopper, Coupon Books, other “unsolicited mass mailings”.

• Write your federal representatives: Take a few moments to email, call, or write your elected officials and demand that, if they run on a “green” platform, they must support legislation to ban all junk paper-based mail except for folks who “Opt-in” to receiving such solicitations.

The government wants to have its cake and eat it too. For all the talk of global warming, water shortages, etc., the government is behaving like the corporations that it often scolds when it comes to issues on the environment. Yet the USPS makes millions of dollars each year encouraging junk mail issuers to print materials that go straight from their printing presses, through the post office, and into your land fills or recycling plants via your name and address.

Fortunately, you can stop the madness in your little part of th world by taking 5 minutes to opt-out of the junk mail system, and maybe taking just a few minutes more to tell your officials how you feel.

Stopping Junk Mail is Fun and Rewarding!

Once you embark on the mission of stopping junk mail, you will find that it is both fun and rewarding. Why? Because this is one simple way that you can immediately and positively impact the environment and reduce whatever pent up frustration you may have subconsciously or conciously harbored all these years. Getting rid of junk mail should not require all this effort – but; the fact is that with a little determination and common sense, you can exercise your right to stop these paper spammers dead in their tracks and enjoy the fruits of your labor every time you retrieve your mail – and it’s only your mail in the box! I’m keeping a list of all the junk mail that I stop manually. You can see this list on my twitter account: elearningexpert.