The other day I found out the shocking fact that over 100 million trees are cut down a year to support the junk mail industry.

To put that in perspective that is over 750000 acres or 400000 football pitches of forest cut down a year. I know there are managed forests that take some of the strain but that ignores all the fuel and energy used to

- Cut down.
- Transfer to paper mills.
- Print
- Transported to where mail shots are put together.
- Transported to post office
- Transported through the post system
- Put in the bin
- Transported to landfill

I have come up with a way to use junk mail against the industry that sends it that will cost you NOTHING to hurt them but requires people power.

As junk mail assumes less than 1% response rate that leaves billions of $ worth of postage paid envolopes that cost the junk mailers nothing UNLESS you post them back.

So every piece of junk you get keep make sure you take out the envelope and post it and tell everyone you know to do the same. It should be like part of your recycle practices

I have started a Facebook group (Only 2 days old at the mo) called DIE Junk Mail DIE. Join and spread the word.

It only takes a few % of the unused envelopes to go back for the cost to combat the profit made from the mailing.

No profit = no more mailings.

If these is no envelope look for the 0800 number and call and simply say somethings like. "Just to let you know I got your junk mail, please stop" then hang up.

Both these cost the sender of junk.

Just to state again... 100 million trees

This is your facebook group? Might want to link to it. Never noticed any envelopes being sent as well.

Quote from sil3ntwar :

This is your facebook group? Might want to link to it. Never noticed any envelopes being sent as well.

Link added. Yep, my group started once I found out about how much the industry wastes of the planets resources each year.

As you are in NZ like me it is more common here for stuff like the Bunnings and Foodstuffs flyers. If you have a No Junk Mail sign on your post box just ring the 0800 number on the sheet and tell them to stop. Once for each piece. I did this today, the lady on the other end was not happy but hay, cost them a few $

All mailings normally have what they term "call to action". To be effective they normally need a way to contact the sender that is free or the response rate drops well below the 0.5-1% required to mail a mailing profitable. (Knowing people that were involved in direct/junk mail in the past gives helpful inside knowledge )

So they either include a postage paid or a free phone number. Both of these only cost the sender when you post back or phone them and they rely on apathy to avoid the costs of the 99% of the people mailed that just bin the stuff they send.

Anything you can do to cost them lowers the profits on the mailing so every bit helps

I work for Foodstuffs and i used to work for Progressive. Wonder if putting flyers up at work would get a response

Quote from sil3ntwar :

I work for Foodstuffs and i used to work for Progressive. Wonder if putting flyers up at work would get a response

lol yep let them know.

Responsible advertising is fine when I have asked for it but every time one of their flyers comes through my "No Junk Mail" box it will cost them at least $1 in 0800 number fees

If the group gains enough momentum I will also not be the only one

Just try to rememeber 100 million trees every time you see all the crap in the letter box we all get! Foodstuffs and Progressive are as much to blame with their pointless flyers as the direct mailers.

See this is exactly what groups like Rage against XFactor did.....

People now magically think they can take down ginormous industries through Facebook......

Good luck with your world saving campgaing....

Damn Jehovas Witnesses.

I expect the best thing you could do would be mail all of their junk straight back to them. Can't you mark it "return to sender" and get that done for free? If enough people started doing that they'd definitely need to rethink their marketing strategy.

Uhh, thats pretty much, but theres no way to stop junkmail

Most of the junk mail isn't really mailed per se, it's just put in every mailbox.

Maybe not, but it must be printed and distributed from somewhere

i've got a sticker on my mailbox saying "NO unaddressed mail, NO advertisements". Fortunately the delivery boys adhere to these stickers, so I only receive mail from those i choose to receive mail from. Although some companies are cheeky and actually spam you in an addressed envelope. But this is much more expensive for them so it doesn't happen very often (dell is a good example though)

I keep thinking about getting one of those, but not sure it'd make much difference. We get tons of flyers and leaflets for local businesses. In fact, sometimes so many that we can't see the floor in our little entry doorway. It's obscene, and it invariably all goes straight in the trash.

So those "no unsolicited mail" signs actually work? I understand there is a legal case for them, right?

Hmm.. 100 million trees a year? I somehow doubt that figure. Either way stop junk mail and you'll be putting a whole lot of people out of jobs. But good luck, let's just hope the people employed by this trade haven't got young mouths to feed.

Quote from Dajmin :

I keep thinking about getting one of those, but not sure it'd make much difference. We get tons of flyers and leaflets for local businesses. In fact, sometimes so many that we can't see the floor in our little entry doorway. It's obscene, and it invariably all goes straight in the trash.

So those "no unsolicited mail" signs actually work? I understand there is a legal case for them, right?

It does work here and yes if a business keeps spamming you regardless you can file a complaint and the business can be find. Of course you need to be able to show the flyers and probably more than just one.

Quote from Intrepid :

Hmm.. 100 million trees a year? I somehow doubt that figure. Either way stop junk mail and you'll be putting a whole lot of people out of jobs. But good luck, let's just hope the people employed by this trade haven't got young mouths to feed.

Even though that might be unfortunate on such employees, it should not be a reason not to stop doing something. Take the coal mines in the UK for example. Should they still be running because of the workforce it employed?

Sometimes big changes are needed. Of course they will hit some people, but that shouldn't be a reason to not do it. You gotta look at the big picture.

edit - and yes i think 100 million trees is kinda accurate. Just imagine the amount of pigs that die for us each year for example. And those numbers will only go up in the years to come.

Overpopulation is much bigger a problem than the environment, yet noone seems to care about that. Maybe we should hire some pseudo scientists and get them on tv or so.
Fix overpopulation, and the rest will automatically be fixed as well.

Quote from Victor :

Even though that might be unfortunate on such employees, it should not be a reason not to stop doing something. Take the coal mines in the UK for example. Should they still be running because of the workforce it employed?

No, a nationalised, heavily subsidised industry (funded by tax) is significantly different to a private one who revenue is raised independantly.

Easy way to stop over population (**** it, I am gonna daily mail) Stop or heavily reduce the massive welfare state. An arguement can be made I admit for some forms of welfare (which I am still not a fan of), but if people get money for doing absolutely nothing except from taking the dick then what can we expect? People shoudl be responsible for themselves

One of my favorite tricks is to take some rubbish out of my bin and put it in the envelope along with a covering letter stating the following:

"Thank you for your rubbish. Please find enclosed some of mine."

Been looking at the signs available on eBay, and there's a decent selection. The problem is we need the free papers to line the cat litter tray So I need something that looks half decent and doesn't mention free newspapers.

And of course the term "junk mail" is a bit of a loaded one. I'm sure the company giving out the cards and leaflets don't consider it to be junk, so they can get around it. But I expect the people round ours who deliver them don't speak good enough English to understand the term "unsolicited".

Perhaps I should just buy a gun.
"Do you want shot?"
"No."
"And I don't want your mail. I'm sure we can find a way to please both of us."

If we didn't have junk mail what else would we use to quickly right down phone numbers or notes in times of desperation. Sometimes the junk has PENS to aid us in our time of need!

Until this important question is answered than I can not lend my support to this campaign.

Why bother with signs, can't you just write a threat instead...? :S

The amount of paper that passes into and out of our hands daily is insane.

I actually was optimistic enough to think that Bill Gates' 'paperless office' would finally do away with paper altogether, but that just didn't happen. Emails may have replaced a lot of the normal mail we used to send to each other but overall the 'de-materialistation' of paper culture hasn't really progressed to the point where it's having any real impact.

I do like the fact that I can read papers online though, and most subjects covered by magazines have online equivalents which tend just as good or better than the printed stuff. There's talk of charging for online newspapers here, which I'm fine with. In fact newsagents should probably be going obsolete soon, as well as video libraries and other stores which sell consumerable media. A lot of people still don't like to buy immaterial products but I think that's more of a generational thing. I certainly don't care if I buy a game or piece of software as a download and not in a box- in fact I prefer it. All this stuff just ends up as junk. As much as I still cling to my CD collection, I think that we'll naturally move towards downloads for all digital media in time. Hey, you'll be thankful for it when you move house next!

Problems-

Paper is still very durable and you can't erase something once its printed. Electronic media is easily editable, so the importance of preserving historical records needs looking at.

Technology moves quickly. I read something a while back how NASA were having great trouble trying to retrieve old data of photos of Earth from space because there were no computers around to read the data anymore. In time we need to standardise proper formats for archive purposes, but I have no clue if this would be a simple or difficult matter.

E-media requires electricity.

Books are still cool.

E-waste.

I guess there are many other things as well...

The only real reasons I can see for continuing to have paper in offices are (1) to make notes, like when you're on the phone to someone or taking a quick message, and (2) when customers are required to sign stuff.

Electronic signatures are usually crap (I've signed for enough parcels that way to know) and it's much more convenient to grab a notebook when on a call than to open up a random app and then type everything the person on the other end is telling you.

We'll get there eventually though. My office is about as close to paper-free as it's practical to be. My department very rarely needs to print anything. And there's always evidence of when something digital has been edited (particularly when it's by the average office worker). Important stuff can be backed up to multiple locations automatically so that they couldn't all be edited by someone trying to cover their tracks.

But what I don't get is how it can possibly profit businesses to spam people's mailboxes. It costs them money to print these things, and surely there can't be that many people who keep them all just in case they need a pizza or a taxi or a house cleaner or an unregulated handyman. I really doubt they make enough business back to cover it.

Quote from Victor :

i've got a sticker on my mailbox saying "NO unaddressed mail, NO advertisements".

i do too, but advertisers have a way around that here... give the spam to canada post and make them deliver it. they have to deliver it, regardless of these signs.

Quote :

100 million trees are cut per year for junk mail

thank god for email.

Quote from Dajmin :

I expect the best thing you could do would be mail all of their junk straight back to them. Can't you mark it "return to sender" and get that done for free? If enough people started doing that they'd definitely need to rethink their marketing strategy.

You only need the postage paid envelope to cost them the postage fee and the cost of someone to open all the returned envelopes. But yes "return to sender works as well". I even swap the junk mail contents so companies get other companies junk.

The main thing is cost. The whole junk mail industry works on apathy of millions of people to do nothing. Think of all the crap you get in the post. No multiply by every house that has a post box and you see the scale of the problem

It is a pointless watse for less than 1% response rate!

Quote from Gil07 :

Most of the junk mail isn't really mailed per se, it's just put in every mailbox.

You are on about flyers. These will normally have a freephone number to call. So for every piece call them and in a polite tone say "Thanks for your junk mail", each short call can cost them up to $1 when call centre fees and the like are taken into account.

Quote from Dajmin :

So those "no unsolicited mail" signs actually work? I understand there is a legal case for them, right?

Here in NZ they work. If not every phone call to the 0800 number on their costs them upwards of $1 for phone charges and call centre charges. All it needs is a polite "Thanks for the junk mail" then hang up.

Quote from Intrepid :

Hmm.. 100 million trees a year? I somehow doubt that figure. Either way stop junk mail and you'll be putting a whole lot of people out of jobs. But good luck, let's just hope the people employed by this trade haven't got young mouths to feed.

The figure is probably an under estimate that has been published and ratified by a number of sources if you start to search. JOBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! omg lol. How about we pay people to hover the sidewalk as that would create more jobs

Quote from Becky Rose :

One of my favorite tricks is to take some rubbish out of my bin and put it in the envelope along with a covering letter stating the following:

"Thank you for your rubbish. Please find enclosed some of mine."

Thats the spirit



In the end this is down to numbers. People recycle so should just make this part of your recycle activity. The less junk mail the less you have to recycle.

Each time I take a few seconds to cost a junk mail sender some cash makes me smile because I know I have done my part to effect their bottom line. The ONLY thing they care about!

Hooray facebook[/obvious sarcasm]