How to Say 'No' to Junk Mail May 09 2014

How many times a year, days in a week and minutes in the day do you spend picking-up junk mail out of the letterbox, opening, reading and then binning it?  Statistics show that  annually approximately 12 billion pieces of junk mail are sent to UK households and businesses; the average household gets 453 items of junk mail and 65 pieces are delivered to you. (http://www.stopjunkmail.org.uk/facts/). Incredibly 90% of this is junk mail we have not requested and these figures. Never mind all the spam we get in our inboxes via email that we have to deal with. 

Apart from wasting a lot of your time, there is considerable damage done to the environment as this amount of junk mail is  equal to between 4.6 and 6.1 million trees in the UK.  In Australia, the campaign group 1 Million Women (http://www.1millionwomen.com.au/tag/so-no-to-junk-mail/) argues that this is as much as 100 million with just under half of that not even being opened. 

Life’s little irritations, such as having to sort through junk mail everyday when you are trying to locate an important piece of post, does have an impact on us as individuals causing us stress as well as wasting our time.  If you are planning on taking a holiday, the problem is compounded by the volume of post you will have when you return but also a full postbox not only means your important post does not get delivered but is also a clear signal to burglars that you are away.

So what can we do about it?  Apart from being careful who you give your personal details to, there are various organisations that you can register with which will get your name and addressed removed from some mailing lists.  These include the Mailing Preference Service (http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/) for addressed junk mail and The Royal Mail’s Door-to-Door Opt-Out (http://bit.ly/1nYhdHD) for unaddressed post.  These services in particular stop unsolicited mail when there has been a bereavement.

These may stop some junk mail but not all.  There is still the local delivery person who may put fliers from local companies through your door so our final suggestion is to place a ‘No Junk Mail’ firmly to your door to deter people from filling your letterbox with unwanted post.  It is one of our most popular signs and because all doors and post boxes are not the same it comes in a choice of sizes, shapes, colours and designs.  Part of our Vital Signs range to remove life’s little irritations, we hope it will not only stop you receiving your share of the 12 billion pieces of junk mail posted each year, but will also be an attractive accessory to your door - and if you order from us, we promise that your details will be kept only by us and all you will receive is a carefully packaged glossy sign, delivered within days dropping through your door.