10.22.2007

canada post, please save trees and leave me alone

I've long been in the habit of reducing the amount of paper junk mail that comes to our home. This benefits both the environment and me personally, as I strongly dislike unnecessary clutter and paper waste.

In the past, I would send postcards to companies and organizations asking to be removed from their paper mailing lists. (Pre-postaged postcards were a great activist tool, now largely replaced by email.) These days it's even easier, as you can generally find a website and send a quick email. Sometimes there's a specific "remove me from your paper mailing list" link.

Since moving to Ontario, however, it hasn't been so easy. The Canada Post letter carrier deposits a portfolio of ads, coupons and other pointless crap in our mailbox nearly every day. I can't ask the companies to remove me from their mailing lists, because most of the mail is not addressed.

In our home, it all goes straight from the mailbox to the recycling bin without even a stop in the kitchen.

How can I get this to stop? What's more, how can we get Canada Post to reduce the amount of paper waste it is shuffling around?

I assume that since paper mail has become increasingly irrelevant, Canada Post is raising revenue by delivering unaddressed commercial mail to everyone in Canada, whether we want it or not. (A quick news search confirmed this.) At the Canada Post website, I found information on how to get your junk mail carried by Canada Post (Unaddressed Admail TM, donchaknow), but nothing on how to get it to stop coming.

I know some people post signs on their mailboxes, requesting no unsolicited mail. That seems like a good idea, but do the carriers have a choice? Are they allowed to skip a houses?

Some people suggest sending the ads back, depositing it in a Canada Post box. I don't see how this helps at all. It might make the recipient feel better, but does it actually reduce paper waste?

What do you do? What can we all do?

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