Are you tired of checking your mailbox and discovering it is crammed with unwanted junk mail? Don’t worry, you are not alone. According to the United States Postal Service, 83.5 billion pieces of advertising mail were received by households in 2010. According to New York University, 5.6 million tons of direct mail advertisements end up in U.S. landfills annually. Of that 44% is thrown out unopened, yet only 22% is recycled.
By reducing the amount of junk mail you receive, you can help preserve the environment while making your own life a little easier. The three R’s – reduce, reuse, recycle – all help cut down the amount of waste we throw away. Practicing these three actions helps conserve energy, natural resources, and decreases the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. Reducing is the most important step. If we reduce first, it will reduce the amount of energy and natural resources used to make new materials. As a result, there will be less materials which we have to reuse and recycle.
Here are some simple and easy steps you can take to reduce the amount of junk mail you receive:
- Prevent your information from being passed around
Anytime you do business with a company, tell the company to remove your name from customer lists they sell to other companies. Look for information on how to opt-out of marketing lists.
- Ask companies to stop sending you mail
If you receive unwanted catalogs or magazines from a specific source, contact the company to be removed from their mailing list. You can easily do this by calling the company’s toll free number or sending a request via e-mail.
- Use online sources to opt out of unwanted mail
Contact the Direct Marketing Association to sign up for their mail preference service. This will allow you to remove your name from most national telemarketing, mail, and e-mail lists. You can register for free online or by sending the registration form in the mail
Catalog Choice offers two options: a free service that sends opt-out requests for individual companies that are already marketing to you, and a premium service that, for an annual donation of $20 or more, is designed to remove your name from data brokers who sell your contact information to marketers.
- Put an end to credit card offers
Register with the Consumer Credit Reporting Industry’s Opt-Out Program to stop receiving credit card and insurance offers. All major credit reporting agencies are in this program. Call 1-888-567-8688 or register online to opt-out of receiving these offers for five years. To opt-out of these offers permanently, you must register online.
Written by Alyssa Lemire, Class of 2017
Image via: Flickr User: Judith E. Bell
Hate receiving junk mails. Such a waste of time to delete all those junk mails. So thanks for sharing the tips to put an end on it.
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Thank you for your comment – we appreciate the feedback. I called our Mail Services Department Manager, Amy Mirabella; she in turn contacted our Advancement department. Below is her response:
I spoke with Kate Whitman from Advancement/Annual Giving. If a person would like to opt out from receiving Marketing related materials and be removed from Annual Giving’s database; they may call 1-800-598-1330 or direct line (585) 275-8602 between 8am and 5pm or email AnnualFunds@rochester.edu. There is not a current web location to opt out.
You can start by making it easier to remove yourself from junk mail coming from the University of Rochester. I made a contribution to the Wilmot Cancer Center in memory of a relative who passed. I keep getting bulky glossy junk mailings from the cancer center and the university. There are no directions on these mailing of how to remove myself from these mailbox jamming publications, and nowhere on the websites other than a general contact phone number from the university. There should be easy to find online links to remove oneself from bulk mailings from U of R without having to call during business hours and ask if there is a way to be removed.