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Their poor aching backs!
Pity the poor mail carriers. They have
to deliver untold pounds of junk mail every day. Catalogs seem to
reproduce like rabbits and credit card companies just won't give up.
My brother emailed me an interesting way to
combat some of the junk mail. Take the postage paid envelope
included with so many of the offers, close it up and send it back to the
company empty. It's a little gotcha that will make you feel better
for at least a few moments. The companies of course will ignore
them. Let's just hope that they're recycling paper!
I vowed this year that I was going
to put an end to useless catalogs. As each arrived I tore off the
back cover making sure that it had the company's phone number on it.
Then whenever I had a few minutes - waiting for the microwave to ding or
during a television commercial - I called and asked to be removed
from the mailing list. I must admit the customer services reps
were all very gracious. Occasionally they asked why and I simply
told them
- I wanted to save the trees
- I order online
- I've never ordered from them to
begin with and where in the heck did they get my address????
Now and then I found a company
that had multiple catalogs and they would read their list and mark
off the ones I was receiving. All of them said that I would
receive a few more since the catalogs were printed weeks ahead.
I then wrote on the back cover the
date that I called them. This came in handy when 3 months
later I was still getting catalogs. Happily there were
only two. I alphabetized the covers and stapled them together so
it's easy to check for an offending company.
I have to tell you I am still
amazed every time I open my mailbox and find just a few pieces of
junk mail and only the catalogs I wanted to keep.
Of course, it was after I had done
all this that I found out about
catalogchoice.com.
L
(See next column) |
Welcome to our
Environmentally Friendly page!
Why should you worry about
junk mail? Here are few statistics from the
Center for a
New American Dream —a Maryland-based nonprofit
organization that helps consumers live environmentally responsible.
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5.6 million tons of catalogs and other direct
mail advertisements end up in U.S. landfills
annually.
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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.
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44 percent of junk mail is thrown away
unopened, but only half that much junk mail (22
percent) is recycled.
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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.
To read
the entire article go to
http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/junkmail.htm
About.com has some great
ideas for handling junk mail. Just go to their website and search
"junk mail" for several articles on how to stop unwanted mailings. Here
are a few of their suggestions.
Credit card offers
are usually handled by credit bureaus. To get rid of this type of
junk mail go to
optoutprescreen.com
They are required by law
to offer this service. However, be sure to read everything before
clicking on anything.
To remove yourself from
the Direct Marketing Association's database go to
dmachoice.org
This will help get rid of
a lot of the remaining junk mail. Again, read everything before
making a decision to opt out.
To limit the number of
catalogs you receive you can open a FREE account at
catalogchoice.com
They also offer a way that
you can spread the word on your own website or blog to get more people
involved in helping the environment.
A happy note
One credit card company finally got
the message. I won't say which but it was one of the big 4.
After continually including plastic fake cards in their
mailings, they have at last gone to cardboard ones. I know I sent
the plastic ones back with a note (in their prepaid postage envelope
J)
begging them to quit and obviously many others complained too. We
can make a difference!
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Big Buzz
The New American Dream is an organization who's mission
is to "help Americans consume responsibly to protect the environment,
enhance quality of life, and promote social justice." Through
programs such as
C3 - Carbon Conscious Consumer Campaign
and Responsible Purchasing Network they are working
to make a difference in how Americans can have a new American Dream with
an "emphasis on sustainability and a celebration of non-material values"
They "envision a society that values not just 'more' but more of what
matters."
To check out their programs go to
newdream.org.
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AUGUST TOPIC -
Water consumption