How to Stop Junk Mail
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6 Steps to get off mailing lists to STOP Junk Mail
Step 1: Stop the Flow
Go to the source of the flood of mailings and turn off the faucet! Remove your name from mailing lists at http://www.dmachoice.org. It can take up to 90 days for the flow to stop since many mailings are already in print or production.
Step 2: No More Credit Card Solicitations
If you've ever filled out a product warranty card, purchased a new home or vehicle, supplied your credit information to a lending institution, or simply carried a credit card, you can be sure your name and address are being circulated among an array of credit card companies hungry for your business. Don't despair -- there is help. To eliminate credit card promotional mailings, call 1-888-567-8688 (that's 888-5OPT-OUT) or visit http://www.optoutprescreen.com. You will have the opportunity to choose either a five-year removal or a permanent removal. For your personal credit cards, ask the company to place you on their "in house" list that is not sold or traded to other companies.
Step 3: Put the Kibosh on Unwanted Phone Books and Catalogs and SIGN UP for our Stop Junk Mail Service!
You can choose whether you want to have a phone book and also opt out of catalogs, charity mailings and other types of mailings for free at https://ecocycle.catalogchoice.org/dashboard. Once you register with the site, you can also opt out of specific catalogs you wish to stop receiving, and opt-out requests will be sent to those catalogs on your behalf. PLEASE NOTE: The site requires those who sign up to affiliate with an organization. Please simply choose "Eco-Cycle" as your "Green Team" when signing up if you don't see your employer, or an organization you are affiliated with, listed. This will not affect your free account in any way, and it will help us calculate our community's environmental savings.
Step 4: Contribute to Charities, Not Mailings
If you contribute once a year to a charitable organization, ask them to send you only one donation request per year. The American Institute on Philanthropy offers several tips on reducing junk mail and phone solicitations from charities at http://www.charitywatch.org/articles/seventips.html.
Step 5: Stop Junk Promo Products
If you've had it with companies sending you mailings or promo products you don't want, there is an option. First, look for any of the following phrases: return service requested, forwarding service requested, address service requested, or change service requested. If you find any of these phrases, write "refused, returned to sender" on the unopened envelope. Mail sent to "Resident," "Current Resident," or "Current Occupant" can be refused if it contains one of the above endorsements, or is sent First Class. When you receive unsolicited promo products, you can mark the envelope “Return to Sender” and put it back in the mail.
Step 6: Get Off the List of ALL Direct Marketers
There are several smaller list brokers and direct marketing firms in the U.S. besides the DMA. You’ll recognize a lot of them on the list below. Just as you did with the DMA in step one, send or phone in all the variations of your name and address to the list brokers and direct marketing firms listed below. Start saving the labels of all the variations of the names and addresses, which come to your mailbox. Every variation, no matter how small (or comical), is another name on a list, which gets sold to literally thousands of businesses, so include all variations! If you prefer to go the snail mail route in removal, cut and paste actual mailing labels onto a sheet, make copies, add your signature beside each name variation on each sheet, and send them off to each of the 5 addresses below. Indicate the following: "Please remove my name and address from your mailing lists and do not rent, sell or trade my name or address."
Valpak
1 Valpak Ave. N.
St. Petersburg, FL 33716
1-727-399-3000
http://www.coxtarget.com/mailsuppression/s/DisplayMailSuppressionForm
Have the Valpak mailing label handy and fill in your information exactly as it is printed. If you like coupons but don’t want to receive all that mail, go to www.valpak.com to choose and print coupons by geographical location.
Valassis Direct Mail, Inc.
Consumer Assistance
PO Box 249
Windsor , CT 06095
1-800-437-0479, between 8:30 and 5:00 EST
http://www.valassis.com/1024/Contact/contact_home.aspx
Select "consumer" and then "I would like to be removed from your mailing list."
Epsilon Data Services
Abacus Cooperative Databases
Send an email with “remove” in the subject line and your full name, including middle initial, and address in the message. If you changed your address over the past six months, include your previous address as well.
Stop Junk Mail for GOOD service
We all deal with it: Credit card offers, catalogs, flyers and the like find their way into our mailboxes, only to be chucked under a heavy sigh. Complain, next day, repeat.
Why are we wasting our precious time on something that national polls say 80% to 90% of us didn't ask for and don't want?
Our Stop Junk Mail for GOOD service through Catalog Choice helps you stop unwanted mail and phonebooks, saving you time and frustration. It’s good for you and good for the planet.
Click here to sign up!
Need help signing up? English.
Necesita Ayuda Para Incribirse? Español.
PLEASE NOTE:
If you don't want to receive emails from Catalog Choice, when signing up, be sure to uncheck the box that says: [ ] I want to receive occasional news from Catalog Choice via email.
Business accounts: If you do not see your company team on the list of organizations to affiliate with when you sign up, please select "Eco-Cycle." Thank you.
LOCAL JUNK MAIL NEWS:
University Hill Elementary of Boulder Wins Eco-Cycle's Green Star Schools Stop Junk Mail Contest
Read the press release
Read the Daily Camera news story
Twenty Boulder County Schools Compete to Stop Junk Mail and Save Natural Resources!
Boulder County, CO (Jan. 21, 2013) – Twenty Eco-Cycle Green Star Schools (schools striving for Zero Waste) in the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley Schools Districts have signed up for Eco-Cycle’s Stop Junk Mail for GOOD contest beginning Jan. 21. The competing schools will have two weeks to encourage their staff and students’ families to sign up for a free Eco-Cycle Stop Junk Mail for GOOD account and opt out of as many pieces of unwanted mail as possible. As a result, families will enjoy emptier mailboxes and the planet will enjoy healthier forests.
We'll be tweeting live about the contest! Follow us @ecocycle with the hashtag #junkmailcontest
Read more about the Green Star Schools Junk Mail Contest ►
View and download a PDF of the press release ►
Eco-Cycle has partnered with the best mail preference service in the nation to stop unwanted mail in Boulder County and protect our dwindling natural resources.
We want to get 5,000 Boulder County residents and businesses off junk mail in the next year. Help us reach our goal by spreading the word! Like this page or tweet about it with the buttons above, or email this page to your friends.
Why stop junk mail? Watch this 30-second video.
Stop Junk Mail for GOOD - News and Press:
Eco-Cycle wins Excellence in Public Education Award for Stop Junk Mail for GOOD Service, Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA)
More about junk mail and our service:
> How does the Stop Junk Mail for GOOD service work?
> What's so great about this service from Catalog Choice?
> How can I support this important program?
> Junk Mail and the Environment
> 5 Tips to Stay Off Junk Mail Once You've Stopped it
Help support Eco-Cycle's Stop Junk Mail for GOOD campaign with a donation!
How does the Stop Junk Mail for GOOD service work?
Eco-Cycle has partnered with national leader Catalog Choice to bring you the very best service to reduce junk mail at home and at work. Here's how to get started:
1) Sign up for a free account on our Stop Junk Mail for GOOD service page
2) Wait for your confimation email; Click the link in the email to verify your account.
3) That's it! Now you can search by your zip code or a company name to choose which phone books, catalogs and other mail you do and don't want.
4) To stay off junk mail, check your preferences at least once a year and use our 5 tips to stay off junk mail.
We've partnered with Catalog Choice because it's the only mail preference service in the nation that:
- Offers the most comprehensive service available for consumers to get off marketing lists for junk mail, catalogsandphone books.
- Stands up for your rights as a consumer and fights to make sure you have a choice in what mail you receive.
- Holds companies to their word in honoring your opt-out request and files complaints directly with the FTC about those who don't.
- Protects your privacy by masking your email address when you are submitting opt-out requests so your junk mail doesn't become your junk email.
- Tracks which companies you've contacted and whether they responded so you don't have to remember which companies you've already called and when.
- Makes sure every company has an opt-out since there is no rule that says they must.
Our goal is to sign up 5,000 Boulder County residents and businesses in the next year. Get your friends and family off stop junk mail by "Liking" this page and tweeting about it.
Did you know junk mail also comes at a huge cost to the environment?
Every day in the forest of northern Canada, majestic trees are cut to stumps—at a rate of 2 acres a minute, 24 hours a day—to produce junk mail and other paper products. These trees are not only critical in combating climate change by absorbing carbon from the earth’s atmosphere; they are also home to native peoples who watch helplessly as they lose everything they know to corporate paper company interests. Read more junk mail facts.
5 Tips to Stay Off Junk Mail
© Copyright 2011 Eco-Cycle Inc. All Rights Reserved. Contact us to use this content.
Getting off junk mail can be as easy as a few clicks with our new service. On the other hand, staying off junk mail can take a bit more effort. Here are 5 surefire ways to do it.
The #1, Must-Practice Tip: Use the magic words "Please do not rent, sell, or trade my name or address."
These are the magic words you’ll want to use when you’re filling out forms like warranty cards, subscriptions, raffles, customer information cards, credit card applications, memberships for an organization, or pretty much any time your submit your name and address to anyone. Write them out next to your personal information, and repeat these words when making purchases over the phone or on the internet, and Voilá! You'll stay off mailing lists.
A note about warranties: Be advised that it is not necessary to fill out a warranty card to benefit from the warranty on your purchase. Warranty and registration cards are usually just a way to get consumer information from you which is then often sold to direct mailers. Read the fine print to see if you are required to return the card to validate the warranty.
Tip # 2: Get on “in house” credit card lists
Contact your personal credit card companies and ask them to place your name and information on their "in house” list that is not sold or traded to other companies. This will prevent more credit card offers from being mailed to your home.
Tip # 3: Prevent charity solicitations
If you contribute once a year to a charitable organization, ask them to send you only one donation request per year, or see if they can send you a paperless request via e-mail. Click here for a sample letter that you can send to charities to reduce solicitations.
Tip # 4: Watch out for contests and free offers
Their purpose is often to obtain your name for mailing lists or to sell you something. If you do sign up for one, be sure to use the magic words.
Tip # 5: 1-800-NO THANKS
When you receive a catalog or publication you don’t want, take the 30 seconds it requires to nip it in the bud. Call the 1-800 number to have your name removed from their list to stop the spreading of your name before it starts again.
TAKE ACTION
Tell the U.S. Post Office you have the right to opt-out of receiving unaddressed mail at your home or business, meaning mail addressed to "current resident." The Post Office is trying to increase its door to door delivery service, which may increase the amount of advertising mail you get by 5 times! Learn more by watching the video below.
Tell the post office you should have a choice in what mail you receive. Sign the letter today!
About Eco-Cycle's Green Star School Stop Junk Mail Contest
Twenty Boulder County Schools will Compete to Stop Junk Mail and Save Natural Resources
Boulder County, CO (Jan. 21) – Twenty Eco-Cycle Green Star Schools (schools striving for Zero Waste) in the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley Schools Districts have signed up for Eco-Cycle’s Stop Junk Mail for GOOD contest beginning Jan. 21. The competing schools will have two weeks to encourage their staff and students’ families to sign up for a free Eco-Cycle Stop Junk Mail for GOOD account and opt out of as many pieces of unwanted mail as possible. As a result, families will enjoy emptier mailboxes and the planet will enjoy healthier forests.
“We know that more than 109 BILLION pieces of direct mail were produced and distributed in the U.S. in 2009,” said Randy Moorman, Campaigns Manager at Eco-Cycle. “It took more than 100 million trees to create that mail – the equivalent of deforesting Rocky Mountain National Park every four months. It is great to see school communities stepping up to do something about this.”
Participants in the contest will be signing up for an account with Catalog Choice, a national mail preference service that has partnered with Eco-Cycle to assist residents in Boulder County who want to be removed from specific marketing lists for unsolicited mail, catalogs and phone books.
The Green Star Schools contest will affiliate each participant with a certain school, but the Catalog Choice service is open to any Boulder County resident or business at any time. In fact, thanks to a limited-time subsidy from Eco-Cycle, Boulder County residents who create an account before August of 2013 will also have their personal information removed for FREE from mailing lists.
“One thing we like about the service offered by Catalog Choice is that people are able to opt out of specific mailings,” said Moorman. “If you want to stop receiving credit card offers and phone books, but want to keep getting the J-Crew catalog, you can do that.”
As for the Green Star Schools, the school with the largest percentage of contest participants who have opted out of at least one piece of junk mail will receive a $400 prize courtesy of Eco-Cycle. There will also be a $200 second place prize, but the big winner here will be the environment. Stopping junk mail preserves natural resources, saves energy, and helps prevent climate change by preventing waste in the first place.
List of Participating Green Star Schools
2013 Junk Mail for GOOD Contest
Bear Creek Elementary (Boulder)
Casey Middle School (Boulder)
Community Montessori (Boulder)
Crestview Elementary (Boulder)
Douglass Elementary (Boulder)
Eagle Crest Elementary (Longmont)
Eisenhower Elementary (Boulder)
Fireside Elementary (Louisville)
Foothill Elementary (Boulder)
Heatherwood Elementary (Boulder)
Horizons K-8 (Boulder)
Lafayette Elementary (Lafayette)
Longmont Estates Elementary (Longmont)
Lyons Elementary (Lyons)
Mesa Elementary (Boulder)
Niwot Elementary (Niwot)
Red Hawk Elementary (Erie)
Summit Middle School (Boulder)
University Hill Elementary (Boulder)
Whittier Elementary (Boulder)
