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Green Tip 26 - Slowing Down The Flow of Junk Mail

Hocking Hills, OH –

A few days ago my husband did me a favor by picking up our mail at the post office. He hesitantly informed me that some of our mail fell back onto the floor of the postal worker's side. The reason too much junk mail. With the holiday season, the junk mail grows exponentially and gets cram packed into my post box. This is not just an issue during the holidays though. Throughout the year junk mail poses a problem for me. When my post box gets too full, the helpful postal workers place a yellow slip in my box telling me that I have overflow and that I need to go to the counter to pick up my excess mail. Most of the time when I pick up my mail it is Sunday, so no one is working. In this case, I have to return to the post office another day, missing important business mail that I needed to receive. When the post office is open, things are not much better, as I have to stand in line between 15-30 minutes.

To me, junk mail is beyond annoying. It is an invasion of privacy. Add to it junk email and unwanted marketing calls. They rob us of valuable family and personal time.

Whenever you order anything, sign up for anything, donate to a charity or foundation, or join a club or organization via mail, phone or email, you are in the junk mail trap. That one organization that you contributed money towards is very generous with your information they share it with everyone under the sun and moon, including Tom, Dick and Harry. They think that if you contributed to such and such a cause or bought a certain type of product, heck, you might consider their cause or product as well. The problem with this sharing of information is that you, me and everyone else starts to receive unwanted junk mail literally tons of trees wasted! Many people don't recycle, so these trees give their life for naught.

Now, someone, somewhere along the line of marketing has set this marketing trend a really bad one, in my opinion, of inundating us with marketing packets, catalogues, magazines and postcards. It wouldn't be so bad if they sent something once or twice a year. The issue is that all of these entities are sending mailings quarterly, monthly or even more frequently. Someone has determined that this mailing procedure is good for business. As an environmentally minded individual, this way of business aggravates me it turns me completely off. Most upsetting to me are environmental organizations who violate. It is truly sad that they don't understand their negative contribution to waste, species eradication and global warming.

Being removed from mailing lists and slowing down the flow of junk mail can take some time, so you have to be patient. Details on how to begin the process will be the topic of next week's green tip. Once you begin the process make it a habit to do the following.

When you place a catalogue order, join a club or organization via mail, phone or email, you need to indicate that:

1. You do not want any of your information to be shared with anyone.
2. You would rather see all of your hard earned dollars go straight to the cause instead of duplicate marketing material.
3. You only want 1 or 2 copies or catalogues per year. For online shoppers, request none.
4. By not sending as much marketing material, they will save their business or organization money and possibly pay their employees more and/or retain more employees.
5. If they persist in sending you so much junk mail, you will absolutely not support their cause or buy their product.
6. They should consider printing on a high post consumer (recycled) paper and use soy inks.
7. You want to be removed completely from mailing lists if their products don't interest you.

This only takes a few minutes to relay to customer service and is well worth the effort. It begins to plant a little green seed and starts to make big change for a healthier earth.

Byline Bio: Gwen Corbett, Bear's Den Cottages
www.bearsdencottages.com, Green Lodging
Helping Individuals and Businesses to Go Green