An article published in December 2007 by the Flyer Distribution Standards Association, stated that 67% of Canadians are not interested in advertising that comes in the mail. So how come Canada Post reports that only 5% of Canadian urban households refuse to accept junk mail?
How Can I Stop Getting Junk Mail?
Any mail without an address is considered "unaddressed ad mail". Unfortunately, this does means some companies get around this by addressing letters to “occupant” or “TV Lover”. To prevent receiving generic marketing material, contact the Canadian Marketing Association to get yourself off their mailing list.
If you’ve posted a “No Junk Mail” sticker and still receive unsolicited mail, you can contact the sender directly and ask that they remove your address from their mailing list. If you still receive unaddressed mail after opting-out, contact Canada Post by calling 1-866-607-6301.
The Red Dot Campaign’s Fight Against Junk Mail
A campaign began in 2007, to raise awareness about paper waste via junk mail. The Red Dot Campaign is a privately funded social marketing venture, founded by Beth Ringdahl. The company symbol and its accompanying symbol is a large red dot emblazoned with the words, “No Junk Mail”.
Designed to catch the attention of postal workers and flyer distributors, the red dot campaign is one way to prevent unnecessary paper wastage. By pasting the “No Junk Mail” sticker, Ringdahl hopes that “every household and every business” will reduce carbon emissions by refusing to accept paper waste.
According to the Red Dot Campaign website, the industry standard for responses from flyer or mail advertising is a 2% response rate, meaning 98% of paper resources are wasted. Red Dot hopes to be a lead influence in reducing Canada’s carbon footprint.
Why Eliminate Junk Mail?
Even companies that use 100% recycled paper use electricity and water to transform discarded paper into new material; thousands of litres of water is used in a day to recycle one tonne of newspaper. Even so, some recycling mills may have polluting by-products, such as sludge. De-inking at Cross Pointe's Miami, Ohio mill results in sludge weighing 22% of the weight of wastepaper recycled.
Eliminating junk mail means reducing some waste created by recycling paper, as well as saving some forests from excessive logging to create new pulp and paper products in the first place.
Ways to Prevent Junk Mail
The Red Dot Campaign sells their bright red, water resistant stickers for one dollar, plus an additional three dollars for shipping and handling. However, they also offer the option of downloading a free sticker for your mail box or slot, in the “Take Action” sidebar from their website.
A homemade version attached to a mailbox or slot will work just as well: A good generic note should read: "No junk mail, flyers or unaddressed mail, please! " (For the extra polite, the words, “Thank you for saving the forests” might be a nice touch.)
Printing the message on water-resistant sticker material, or even regular labels sold in most office supply or stationary stores should make the message easier to read than handwriting.
For those who fear that printing off one sticker from a page of several is a waste, print a whole page of stickers and offer them to friends and neighbours. They will likely appreciate a respite from useless mail and needless trips to the recycling bin.
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