Backbone > Life in the Balance
‘Tis the Season... to Get Junk Mail
By Susan Piperato; Photo by Megan McQuade

December is traditionally the year’s most magical month. It’s a time of seasonal and spiritual celebration, and the time of year when people most often get in touch with family and friends near and far to wish them well—a ritual that is most often accomplished by sending cards. Many people bemoan the fact that greeting card companies like Hallmark have turned every holiday—especially Christmas, Hanukah, and now the increasingly popular Winter Solstice—into an excuse for felling massive quantities of trees for paper.

But the holiday season incites an even more insidious form of environmental degradation than that perpetuated by the greeting card industry. Each year, junk mail—which reaches its peak of frequency this month—causes more than 100 million trees to be ground up and 28 billion gallons of water to be used to provide the necessary paper. According to the Minnesota-based Alliance for Sustainability (www.mtn.org/iasa/junkmail), in 1999 5.6 million tons of catalogs and other direct mailings entered into the solid waste stream—a figure that’s even more startling in light of the fact that 44 percent of all junk mail is thrown away unopened.

The costs of the direct mail assault are staggering. On average, 340,000 garbage trucks are used annually in this country to haul away to landfills all the junk mail that doesn’t make it into the recycling bin—at a cost of approximately $550 million each year. Disposal of unsolicited mail costs the nation $320 million in local taxes. The task of transporting junk mail to the local dump uses up a vast amount of fossil fuel, and in turn produces thousands of pounds of CO2 and dioxin. Already junk mail takes up approximately 40 percent of the solid mass contained within the space of all landfills nationwide; that figure is expected to rise to 48 percent by 2010.

And yet, like death and taxes, junk mail is taken for granted—even by people who try to cope with it by assiduously recycling every piece of it. Fact is, junk mail—along with telemarketing, online ad banners, and spam e-mail—violates privacy as much as it despoils the environment. Admittedly, it’s difficult, if not impossible, not to receive any junk mail whatsoever. In fact, we each spend an average of eight months of our life opening unsolicited mail.

How much is a name worth?
Your name is worth three to 20 cents in the direct mail industry. Your data is entered into computer databases and is up for grabs by mailing list companies whenever you do any of the following: apply for or use a credit card; book a hotel, rental car, or flight; order from a catalog or online; open a bank account; use a store’s loyalty card; pass through a highway or bridge toll pass scanner; give birth; subscribe to a magazine; enter a sweepstakes; buy a car; financially support a cause; join a religious, political, professional, or charitable organization; fill out a survey; register a warranty; take out insurance; buy a house; get married or divorced; or—unbelievably—acquire a serious or life-threatening illness. In other words, life itself makes you vulnerable to direct mail list companies, and guarantees your receipt of junk mail from the companies they service.

Even the Department of Motor Vehicles and the US Postal Service sell mailing lists. Ostensibly, the reason behind the Postal Service’s sales is to help redirect your mail by providing list companies with the information acquired through change-of-address forms, but the institution also gains from this by making a profit.

It’s alarming, to put it mildly, how much personal information about every single one of us is circulating out there courtesy of unsolicited advertising. Indeed, if we are to maintain our privacy in the future, as well as leave as small an ecological print as possible on the earth, then an end to junk mail must come—starting with the stuff that fills your own mailbox.

Steps to Reduce Junk Mail
1. Track the spread of your name. Add markers to your address (an apartment number or superfluous letter to your already-numbered apartment) or your name (an additional initial or modified spelling). When you get something unsolicited in the mail, check your list of markers to figure out where they got your name.

2. Ask to be removed from a list. When you’ve identified a company or list service, call their customer service department and tell them you want your name taken off their mailing list. Keep track of any mail you receive after this and continue to make calls, if necessary. Always be polite and ask to speak to a supervisor if the problem persists.

3. Contact the big guys. Most companies that send junk mail never even see your name, because they buy lists from other companies. The Direct Marketing Association (Mail Preference Service, PO Box 9008, Farmingdale, NY 11735) is an organization of direct mailers. You can pay a $5 fee (by credit card) for five-year coverage through their Mail Preference Service, and register immediately with them online at http://www.dmaconsumers.org, or download the form and snail-mail it to them. The latter takes 90 days but it’s free. Other big list resellers include: Acxiom (optout@acxiom.com, www.acxiom.com, or (877) 774-2094); Donnelly Marketing (Database Operations, 416 S. Bell, Ames, IA 50010l, (888) 663-4402); Metromail Corporation (List Maintenance, 901 W. Bond, Lincoln, NE 68521); and Dunn & Bradstreet (Customer Service, 899 Eaton Avenue, Bethlehem, PA 18025).

4. Get rid of loose, unaddressed “advertising supplement” flyers. The companies ADVO (Mailbox Values, (860) 520-3361) and Harte Hanks (Potpourri or Pennysaver, (800) 422-4116) are the biggest offenders. Contact them, but wait eight weeks for the mail to stop coming. If it doesn’t, call again. Also, contact your post office, because it’s actually against the law to deliver unaddressed mail.

5. Don’t send in warranty registration cards. It’s your receipt that ensures warranty coverage, not a registration card. Most of these cards are forwarded to the National Demographics and Lifestyles Company (List Order Dept., 1621 18 Street, Suite 300, Denver, CO 80202), which compiles mailing lists based on lifestyles. Contact the ndlc and ask that your name be removed.

6. Avoid calling 800 and especially 900 numbers. Once they’ve got your number, they’ve got you—and they’ve got you grouped together with everyone else who’s called.

7. Don’t enter sweepstakes! Most of them are really incognito name searches.

8. Tell your credit card company not to sell your name. And while you’re at it, limit your use of credit cards altogether.

9. Stop pre-approved credit cards. Call the three major credit bureaus: TransUnion (800) 888-4213; Equifax (800) 685-1111; and Experian (888) 397-3742. Or call the one-stop opt-out number for all three bureaus: (888) 5-OPTOUT.

10. Don’t fill out the Post Office’s Change of Address form when you move.

11.Stop sexually-oriented advertising (soa). Go to the post office and ask for Form 2150 to stop mail from a specific company, or Form 1500 to stop receiving soa in general.

12.Ask organizations you support and companies you order from not to sell your name.

13.Opt-out of Abacus. Chances are, your mail orders have been reported to Abacus, a database of catalog and publishing companies’ customers. Write to Abacus at PO Box 1478, Broomfield, CO 80038 or call (800) 518-4453.

14. Consider having an unlisted phone number. Or at least ask your phone company to remove your listing from its street address directory.

15. Avoid using stores’ loyalty cards. These cards give you discounts and move you through check-out faster, but they also allow price scanners to link your name to your purchases, leaving you open to receiving unwanted “special offers” from other stores and rival brand coupons. (For more information, visit www.nocards.org.)

16.Read the label. Mailing labels provide more information than your address—check them for the names of distribution companies as well as code numbers to report to offending companies when requesting removal of your name.

17.Tell America Online to stop their metal mail campaign. Go to http://www.newdream.org/junkmail/ and you will be two clicks away from telling off aol. And be sure to write “Refused. Return to Sender” on the metal cases and mail them back.

18.Shop locally. Support mom and pop, and avoid department store mailing lists.

19. If all else fails, contact Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. They want to know who refuses to remove your name. Contact them at 3100 Fifth Avenue, Suite B, San Diego, CA 92103; (619) 298-3396; or http://www.privacyrights.org.

Who ya gonna call? Junk busters!
Yes, there really is a company called Junk Busters, along with several others dedicated to stopping junk mail and spam. A highly selective list follows:

• Private Citizen, Inc. Call (800) CUT-JUNK or log onto www.privatecitizen.com; fees are $10 to stop junk mail and $20 to stop telemarketing calls.

• The Center for a New American Dream (www.newdream.org) is a nonprofit organization founded following a 1995 conference convened by the Merck Family Fund, and devoted to helping Americans consume responsibly to protect the environment, enhance the quality of life, and promote social justice.

• Good Advice Press (PO Box 78, Elizaville, NY 12523) has published an informative 28-page book, Stop Junk Mail Forever, for $4.50, including shipping and handling. Call (800) 255-0899 or log onto www.goodadvicepress.com.

• Junk Busters (www.junkbusters.com) and Obviously (www.obviously.com) offer tips and good sample letters.

• Consumer Research Institute (www.stopjunk.com) offers printed and eBook kits for stopping junk mail—designed by a former direct mail copywriter who saw the light. Also offers information on identity theft, one of the fastest-growing crimes in this country.

• Eco Future (www.ecofuture.org) offers statistics on the human and environmental costs of junk mail.

• For provocative discussion of and information on SPAM, check out the following Web sites: Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (www.causce.org); http://spam.abuse.net; www.cybernothing.com; http://net.gurus.com; http://www.abuse.net.

Lobby for a National Junk Mail Opt-Out Option
Contact the postal inspector (call (800) 275-8777 for the office nearest you) if you have complaints or questions about mail fraud, tampering, mail theft, sexually-oriented advertising, or obscene or pornographic material. And while you’re at it, tell the postal inspector—along with your congressional representative and senator—that you’d like to see a national opt-out registry commissioned along with better publicity for the little-known Form 1500, which should be expanded to include all unsolicited direct mailers as well as sexually explicit mailers. For a look at Form 1500, log onto www.usps.gov.

Wanna Make Something of It?
The first Junk Mail Tree, created by Arizona artist Wayne Sumstine, appeared in the Twin Cities at a Purim celebration in February 2001. Standing at five-and-a-half feet and up, Junk Mail Trees overflow with fresh junk mail, along with flyers about the Junk Mail Tree Project—ripe for the taking. The Alliance for Sustainability (iasa@mtn.org or (612) 331-1099) runs the Junk Mail Tree Project, designed to educate groups, businesses, and government agencies about junk mail and solid waste reduction. Junk Mail Trees are made from salvaged materials recycled into tree forms, which are then covered with junk mail by individuals and organizations in a matter of hours. The Alliance provides a materials list and builders kit (both can be sent by snail mail or downloaded), along with a sample flyer to publicize your group’s project.

Groups may sponsor a Junk Mail Tree project at four levels—ranging from $250 to $1,000—and receive a plaque, table, or bench made of “shetkaStone”—or compressed junk mail—for keeping or donating to a Habitat for Humanities home. To find out more, e-mail iasa@mtn.org.
You can make briquettes from your own leaves, mown grass, water, and junk mail (a little straw also helps). With briquettes, you don’t need to use wood in your fireplace or wood stove—allowing you to heat your house for free most of the year. For a $25 contribution, the Legacy Foundation (http://www.legacyfound.org) offers a briquette-making manual including detailed instructions for building your own briquette press and ongoing e-mail and telephone technical assistance throughout the process of making briquettes. The Foundation is also pioneering its briquette-making project in developing countries, and is in the process of developing a shop vac-sized machine that will turn junk mail into briquettes in just one step. Check the Web site for updates.