What about junk mail and junk faxes?

Question

With all the eviromentilist going crazy over all the biofuels, gas economy, and this green house effect. But what happened to not wasting paper. The amount of trees that are wasted every year due to wasted faxes and junk mail has got to be astronomical. All this paper does not even get looked at, just thrown in the garbage. This kind of waste should be criminal. Right ????

Answer 1

Junk mail is what subsidizes the U.S. Postal service.  

When was the last time you mailed a letter to someone?  Me neither.  

E-mail rules.

So, in order to perpetuate an outdated bureaucracy, they take on trash mail that accounts for the lion's share of what we dig out of the mail box day after day.

Parcel and business mail delivery should be left to the companies like FedEx, UPS, DHL etc who have figured out how to make a profit doing that work and the USPS should go the way of the DoDo Bird.

Answer 2

Amen.  In the first place I think it should be illegal to put something in someone's mailbox that they didn't ask for.

That mailbox is private property. You can't just dump junk in someones garage or living room that they don't want so why in their mailbox?   You also point out the fact that it is a collossal waste.  I don't ever look at or buy anything that comes in unsolicited junk mail, it all goes directly to the recycle bin, even so why send it in the first place.  We can stop it by ignoring it, as soon as it becomes unprofitable, it will stop.  Can you tell this is a pet peeve of mine?

Answer 3

Agreed

Answer 4

The mailboxes are the property of the US Postal Service. Once you put a mailbox in place it is no longer private property. As for junk mail there is a form you can fill out at the Post Office  to stop receiving Third class mail. The down side of this is that any catalogs you did want to receive will not be delivered. Its all or none with bulk mail. As for wasted trees, new trees will grow to replace them.

Answer 5

In the US, junk faxes are illegal.  So, there are ways to stop it, and make money through prosecution of the offenders.

http://www.junkfax.org/

Stopping junk mail has long been discussed, by environmental groups and consumer groups, but it is not illegal.

http://www.environmentaldefense.org/cont...

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200609/...

http://www.ecocycle.org/junkmail/index.c...

http://www.simplesteps.org/index.php?opt...

Write or call the catalog companies to have your address removed from their lists - same goes for charities as well.  When you get the privacy notices from your banks and credit card companies, make sure to skim the fine print to find out how to opt-out of marketing material from your institution and to be sure that they do not share your information with 3rd parties.  Be especially careful posting your address on-line, and do be sure when signing up for a mailing list, online club, or when purchasing something online that you also make sure that you find the small checkbox to be sure that you opt-out of future mailings and your info is not shared with 3rd parties.

You may also want to contact:

http://www.catalogchoice.org/

https://www.dmachoice.org/MPS/mps_consum... (a $1 fee online, but free if you snail mail them at:  Mail Preference Service

c/o The DMA

P.O. Box 9008

Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008 )

https://www.optoutprescreen.com/ (to stop those credit card offers in the mail)