Posted on 01/13/2008 1:51:21 PM PST by BenLurkin
The average American's mail every year contains about 40 pounds of unsolicited advertisements and promotional material: pre-approved credit-card offers, home refinancing offers, oil-change coupons, mail-order meat catalogs.
The Post Office delivers 17.8 tons of bulk mail each year nationally, but 44 percent of the material goes into the trash unopened and only 2 percent is responded to, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says.
People can take steps to stop, or at least slow, the flow of junk mail into their mail boxes, though the methods are sometimes cumbersome: direct mail firms and credit companies have established Web sites where people can ask to be taken off mailing lists, and the U.S. Post Office has a form that people can submit to block "erotically arousing" mail - the determination of which is up to the citizen.
"Everyman's mail today is made up overwhelmingly of material he did not seek from persons he does not know. And, all too often, it is matter he finds offensive," U.S. Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote in a 1970 Supreme Court ruling.
Rejecting a direct-mail industry appeal of a federal law that allowed people to block "pandering" advertisements, Burger commented: "In today's complex society, we are inescapably captive audiences for many purposes, but a sufficient measure of individual autonomy must survive to permit every householder to exercise control over unwanted mail. ... Today's merchandising methods, the plethora of mass mailings subsidized by low postal rates, and the growth of the sale of large mailing lists as an industry, in itself, have changed the mailman from a carrier of primarily private communications, as he was in a more leisurely day, and have made him an adjunct of the mass mailer who sends unsolicited and often unwanted mail into every home."
(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...
Gee...for some reason I just have that feeling of unease that the Direct Marketing Association will take the action they promise.
There are also shopper newspapers, which when they are just left on the porch prove that no one lives there. To me, this is littering and should be fined as such. It's wasteful of paper and just an inconvenience.
There’s a program called “Opt-Out Prescreen” that I found out about in this article from MSNBC.com. There’s a link at the bottom of the article.
We signed up for it and have eliminated virtually all our credit card offers. So nice.
The Red Tape Chronicles-Bob Sullivan
EVEN TORN-UP CREDIT CARD APPLICATIONS AREN’T SAFE
http://redtape.msnbc.com/2006/03/what_if_a_despe.html
This might be of interest to others out in FR.
It’s a way to protect yourself from credit card fraud by not receiving those offers in the mail. Perhaps your mom ping list might be interested?
I recall the broohaha about disposable diapers clogging the landfills when my kids were little. I never saw anyone go after this kind of waste of trees and landfill. I wonder why?
“-The Post Office delivers 17.8 tons of bulk mail each year nationally,-”
I’ll bet thats a typo and the real figure is per DAY.
Mail their “postage paid” solicitation envelopes back to them - empty and with no return address - everytime they send an unwanted solicitation.
It does make jobs for land fill workers though.
bookmarked,...and thanks.
It says there "But be warned, you will be asked to supply your Social Security number. There's no other way to get off the lists."
I’ll bet thats a typo and the real figure is per DAY.
I think they forgot to add the "per-house."
Mr. mm took care of that so I wasn’t aware of that.
Interesting.
What are the ramifications of that?
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