Remember when you looked forward to receiving handwritten letters in the mail?
Well, even if you don’t, these days you are probably used to visiting your mailbox mainly to remove the bevy of unwanted catalogs, credit card applications and other miscellaneous advertisements.
All that junk mail piling up isn’t just annoying, it’s also bad for the environment. Harvard University reports that every year 100 million trees worth of bulk mail arrives in American mailboxes, which is equal to deforesting Rocky Mountain National Park four times. In addition, producing and disposing all of that rubbish correspondence requires the consumption of energy equivalent to three million cars.
To stop the clutter, save some trees, and avoid any further unnecessary aggravation, here are a few steps to reduce the amount of junk mail that makes its way to your home.
Opt out of credit card offers
To eliminate unsolicited credit card and insurance mailings, call 1-888-567-8688 (888-5OPT-OUT) or visit http://www.optoutprescreen.com. The service is operated by the main consumer credit reporting companies, TransUnion, Innovis, Experian, and Equifax, and will allow you to be blocked from receiving promotions for 5 years or permanently. Be aware, you will be asked to give information such as birthdate, telephone number and social security number.
Remove yourself from mailing lists
Spiegel catalog be gone! Register online with the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) Mail Preference Service to remove your name from national mailing lists of companies and nonprofits who promote goods and services directly to consumers.
Another option is Catalogchoice.org, which will let you unsubscribe from specific catalogs one at a time.
You can also stop those blue ValPak envelopes full of coupons from clogging your box by registering with their Mailing List Removal portal.
Related
Disconnect from Yellow Pages & White Pages telephone books
If you’re still receiving those massive phone books like it’s 1982, it’s time to finally send them packing.
TheRealYellowPages.com has a Green Opt-Out option to stop receiving physical copies of both the personal (White Pages) and business (Yellow Pages) directories.
There’s an app for that
Download PaperKarma to your mobile device and for a fee ($3.99 a month or $24.99 for the year) you can take a photo of the specific catalog or mailing you want to to stop receiving and they will take care of unsubscribing you from their lists.
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