I just wanted to share a tip with everyone on how I've reduced our junk mail significantly. We used to get at least a couple credit card applications or things like it every day, but now we're down to getting just a few a week!

Anyway, whenever you get junk mail that has a return envelope that's paid for already, take the application or a piece of paper with your name & address on it and write "please take me off your mailing list" on it. Send it back to them that way. Since they have to pay for the mailing, it costs you nothing.

As an added bonus, you could also write "go vegetarian" or something like that on the back of the envelope or put some pro-veggie stickers on it. :)

I just wanted to share a tip with everyone on how I've reduced our junk mail significantly. We used to get at least a couple credit card applications or things like it every day, but now we're down to getting just a few a week!

Anyway, whenever you get junk mail that has a return envelope that's paid for already, take the application or a piece of paper with your name & address on it and write "please take me off your mailing list" on it. Send it back to them that way. Since they have to pay for the mailing, it costs you nothing.

As an added bonus, you could also write "go vegetarian" or something like that on the back of the envelope or put some pro-veggie stickers on it. :)

You could put the VISA stuff into the Mastercard envelope and the Mastercard Stuff into the VISA envelope and then let them fight it out :)

You could put the VISA stuff into the Mastercard envelope and the Mastercard Stuff into the VISA envelope and then let them fight it out :)
:lol:

I was so pissed off at one time about how much of that crap I was getting, that I started to put ALL my junk mail in the return envelopes and make them pay for $2 worth of junk. Ha Ha Ha LOL!!!! That made me feel good.

But on a serious note...

•••One piece of junk mail means:••••

A tree gets cut down.
Pay the guy to cut down the tree
Pollute the air with the chain saw.
Pay the men to process the tree.
Pay the guy to drive the truck.
Use the Gas and Pollute the air with the truck.

The tree gets taken to a plant for pulping.
Pay the guy to drive the truck.
Use the Gas and Pollute the air with the truck.
Pay the guys to work at the plant.
Pollute the air to process the tree.
Energy gets used at the plant to process the tree.

Take the pulp to a paper processing plant.
Pay the guy to drive the truck.
Use the Gas and Pollute the air with the truck.
Pay the guys to work at the plant.
Pollute the air to process the pulp into paper.
Energy gets used at the plant to process the tree.

Drive the truck to a printing plant with the paper on it.
Pay the guy to drive the truck.
Use the Gas and Pollute the air with the truck.
Pay the guys to work at the plant.
Pollute the air to print the paper.
Energy gets used at the plant to print the paper.

A Designer(s) is paid to create the pages for the flyers/junk mail.
The designer has to drive a car to the job, which pollutes the air, not to mention
the other people associated with getting the flyer/junk mail created.

The printed junk mail gets driven to a mail distribution place.
Pay the guy to drive the truck.
Use the Gas and Pollute the air with the truck.
Pay the guys who work at the mail distribution place.
Energy gets used at the mail distribution place.

The Post Office must sort the junk mail into small bundles for the carriers to deliver.
Pay the workers to sort the junk mail.
Energy gets used at the Post Office.

The Post Office then distributes the junk mail by Postal carrier.
Pay the Postal carrier to deliver the junk mail.
Use the Gas and Pollute the air with the delivery truck.

You must then sort your mail, by keeping what's important and throwing out the rest (junk mail).

If you put it in the garbage:
The garbage man must be paid to pick up your garbage.
Use the Gas and Pollute the air with the truck.
Pay the guy to drive the truck to the landfill where they deposit the junk mail.

If you recycle your junk mail:
Pay the guys to pick up your recycling.
Pay the guy to drive the truck.
Use the Gas and Pollute the air with the truck.
Pay the guys at the recycling plant to process your junk mail.
Energy gets used to process the junk mail.

---------------------------
Did I forget anything?

You could put the VISA stuff into the Mastercard envelope and the Mastercard Stuff into the VISA envelope and then let them fight it out :)

:lol: I just might do that! tee hee hee....

That's one thing that p*sses me off about charity organizations. I donated to this local shelter for the winter holidays two years back, and whenever the holidays come around I seriously get about one piece of mail per week from them. It makes you wonder how much money actually goes towards what they're asking for money for. I'm happy to donate money to them, but I don't need endless letters sent to me reminding me to donate.

BWJ: check this out... sounds like a similar situation to the one you describe, except the writer of the post in the following link has decided to never again donate because of the aggressive nagging by these charities.

http://www.postget.com/get/article.php?newsid=95979

Warning: over-sensitive people avoid this link.

In some ways, I've gotta agree with that article. I mean, I'm still going to donate to charities, but I really do think it's ridiculous that they plaster you with so many mailings asking for more.

Another thing I do to try to reduce this is to just write a polite e-mail to them. I tell them that I plan to be a continuing supporter of their organization but would rather them not waste paper by sending me mailings. This usually gets me taken off their mailing list.

There's an even easier way to get off credit card mailing lists and other lists. Here are some sites that may help:
http://www.newdream.org/junkmail/ (prints out letters for you to send to major marketing associations and credit bureaus.
www.junkbusters.com
There are more if you search in web directories.
Also- when donating to charity, write "do not share my personal information" on your check, membership, etc.
Don't throw away those privacy policies you get from your accounts. Look them over to see how to opt out of having your info sold to others.

Thanks, Thalia! I've done the junkbusters before and will make sure to check out the other link! :)

I returned a lot of stuff with "Mr 1vegan has died" on it....:D


I hardly get junk mail anymore.....

When I got my credit report last week there was a phone number to call to have your name removed from the credit agency group that sells your name to all the credit card companies. I called and removed my name. I'll see if I can find that number.

oh it was on the website thalia posted too...
1-888-5-OPTOUT
You can opt out for 3 years or permanently.

The main consumer credit reporting agencies, TransUnion, Experian and Equifax, maintain mailing lists that are often used by credit card and insurance companies to send out junk mail. The good news is that you can call a single number to get your name and address removed from the mailing lists circulated by all three agencies (as well as that of a fourth company, Innovis). Just call: 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688)

Follow this link and register your name and address.
http://www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglistdave

The DMA will then put your details on their database and then when the junk mailers profile their list they cross refernce it against the DMAs and take out anyone who has registered for MPS (Mail Prefernce Service)

Its free to do if you print out the registration and mail it. Or it costs 5$ online.

So the best way to stop junk is from the source, mail as many friends with this info and hopefully we can all save at least some trees, petrol, ink and oh yes our time sorting through mountains of junk mail!

Gary UK

Some blurb about The Direct Marketing Association
Getting off mailing lists/Mail Preference Service

To receive less commercial advertising mail, you can register for The DMA's Mail Preference Service (MPS). See below for more information about MPS.

Please note, The DMA does not provide marketers with consumer mailing lists or do consumer mailings. Rather, the Mail Preference Service is available to companies for the sole purpose of removing your name and address from their mailing lists. This service does not apply to mail sent to your business address, or to "resident/occupant" mail.

The registration form below will allow you to significantly reduce the amount of unsolicited national advertising you receive at home. You may register with MPS by filling out this form, then clicking on the submit button. For more details, read "How to register for MPS" below.

That's one thing that p*sses me off about charity organizations. I donated to this local shelter for the winter holidays two years back, and whenever the holidays come around I seriously get about one piece of mail per week from them. It makes you wonder how much money actually goes towards what they're asking for money for. I'm happy to donate money to them, but I don't need endless letters sent to me reminding me to donate.
Tell me about it. I'm spammed by so many good things - Amnesty International, Sierra Club, Utne! Ugh... Utne's the worst!

I always rip up the paperwork of "bad" things and send it back (mostly credit card junk.) That almost doubles their cost of sending it to me, and yet they still get nothing in return. It makes me feel good, at least. :evil:

Most cities offer recycling of nearly 100% of junk mail. OK, the stupid AOL CDs are not recyclable, but almost all paper products are. If you don't have curbside pickup for junk mail, then consider saving it all in a big box (no sorting required). Find out where you can recycle by calling your city government. Next time you're planning to be in that area (don't waste gas making a special trip), take your box with you. Far too much paper is still hitting the landfills. I guess junk mail keeps our postage rates down, at least.

We get all this junk in these huge "Do not fold" envelopes so my dad folds up the envelope and sends it back in the paid postage envelope with a note that says: Sorry, I folded it.

it might be fun to rip things up and send them back and stick it to the company, but i try to just call and make sure they put me on their "do not mail" list and then recycle all the junk they send me. i have no guarantee that what i send back to them will get recycled.

Chances are the person seeing your "please remove me" note couldn't care less. It probably ends up in the trash since that's less work than actually fulfilling your request.

I'm going to try it for a while though. Couldn't really hurt.

Okay. I'm reviving the thread. I did a search for "CD recycling" or something like that and found this. I'm going to throw in my two cents.

I used to stuff all of the credit card crap back into postage paid envelope for them to deal with. However, I didn't like knowing whether or not the paper was going to get recycled. Eventually, I took a small piece of scratch paper from a pad. (It was about the size of a fourth of a regular sheet of paper; This was before I started cutting the half sheet size coupon ads that come in an envelope about once a month; I use those for scrtch paper then I send them to recycling heaven) I said something to the effect of: I am currently not in the market for a credit card. The mailings werre coming several times a week, sometimes, several times a day. I find it to be annoying and of poor customer service. Therefore, when I am in the market for a credit card, I will be less likely, or not likely at all to choose your company. Also, I find the bulk of paper to be unenvironmentally friendly and annoying. While I have no problem recycling it, I don't think it should have been used to begin with. Please remove me from your list. Not doing so will certainly guarantee that I will not use them in the future. Thank you, (I then signed and printed my name as it appeared on the mailing.)

I think I had to do that twice with one company, as I use both my "maiden" name for stuff and my hyphenated name for stuff, depending on what the stuff is.

Also, I contacted AOL with a complaint e-mail. I have ceased receiving the CDs in the mail (I gave them my name and address). I also told them that I found their solicitations to be annoying and is causing me to be less likely to use their service if I ever went back to dial-up (this was before they partnered with Road Runner).

I think with both companies I said that I felt as though I was being harassed. I decided that harassed was a stronger word than soliciated.

I agree about the charities. I get mailings from them with address lables. Great. I could use address lables. I got some cute ones from the ASPCA. I used a couple for a cake pan and lid that I took to a church potluck. (I have a yummy eggless, milkless chocolate cake recipe that's cheap and easy.) Well, they stayed on my counter for a couple of weeks and the other day they slipped between the counter and the fridge along with the cake recipe. Blah.

Anyway, I have many address lables like that. I got another set from a proclaimed Christian children's charity. I e-mailed or wrote them saying that I am aware of their charity and think that they probably do good work. However, I think the money would best be spent if they just occasionaly sent out one short letter of information and not spend money on address lables.

Despite the post that was posted, I will continue to donate to charities. I have a few that are genuine, and will not harass me with mailings, even if I do give them my name, address, email, phone number, etc. That's part of the reason why I donate to those charities.

Okay. I've babbled enough and I must get ready for class. (Where I will be handed more tree killing paper I'm not sure I'll want. Oh well. At least I'm auditing the class so I can drop out. He he.)

Laura

This is better than calling:

https://www.optoutprescreen.com/?rf=t

This is better than calling:

https://www.optoutprescreen.com/?rf=t

This website requires social security # and date of birth. Does anyone know for sure that the site is legit? If so, how do you know? Seems like it would be easy to throw together a site like that to get people's info for identity theft.

Several years ago I tried to offer the suggestion to AOL that they at least make their CD be CD-RW's so they could be re-used, like the old floppies we all probably still have copies of re-used for something else :lol:

Being the typical corporation they are, not a single reply seemed to notice that I was making a suggestion as a good citizen. All assumed I was a customer having a problem loading their software. I never got any decent reply from any of them nor got any of them to understand what I was trying to get them to understand. I didn't think it was that difficult a concept! If anyone wants to take over this and try and get them to figure out they need to make CD's that are re-usable, be my guest. I also never found any good contact email for situations like that.

Thanks for the other links for stopping junkmail. I'll get on that later today :)

You could put the VISA stuff into the Mastercard envelope and the Mastercard Stuff into the VISA envelope and then let them fight it out :)
rotfl :lol:

I thought this http://www.consumerreports.org/main/detailv4.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=665189&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=22355&bmUID=1120760903631 was rather amusing. Scroll down to the middle of the page.