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Receiving mail

Re: stopping junk mail

I'm pretty sure that eliminating junk mail would cut down US paper usage by about 50%. Save the rainforest indeed.
 
1) Do you like or hate junk mail? If you hate it do you have a NO JUNK MAIL sign on your letter box?
Dislike. I think of the paper waste, and then the poor postman who's had to carry all this around. Some of it is glossy cardboard that won't recycle. I prefer to avoid buying things from the shops who send me junk mail. A no junk mail sign is pointless as these letters are printed in quantities based on number of addresses. It doesn't reduce waste; just makes more work for the postmen returning it to the sender, or more often than not, putting double through your neighbours door. :D Postmen are not allowed to destroy junk mail.

2) What do you hate getting most in the mail?
Begging letters; Avon catalogues that you're supposed to leave on your doorstep on day X -- (no, it's going being left out in the rain for the next four days. Hopefully you'll get the message and won't leave me another :techman:); Charity bags.

3) What do you really look forward to receiving in the mail?
Things I ask/pay to be sent to me.

4) If you see the postman deliver your mail do you go straight out and collect it?
I rarely see him, but yes.

5) Do you ever send away for free samples etc?
Not any more. :D Those things invariably invite more junk mail or they don't tell you on the phone that they're signing you up to a try before you buy subscription, where you can only opt out by writing a letter before they start sending stuff out to you.
 

1) Do you like or hate junk mail? If you hate it do you have a
NO JUNK MAIL sign on your letter box?

I think they'd just throw junk mail in even if i put a notice outside. I hate most junk mail unless it's a restaurant menu.
I likes food.


2) What do you hate getting most in the mail?

I always dislike the "you're being sued" mail.

3) What do you really look forward to receiving in the mail?
Letters. Cards. Presents. Money.

4) If you see the postman deliver your mail do you go straight out and collect it?
I wait till the post man is gone and then go for it.

5) Do you ever send away for free samples etc?

I always feel like that kind of thing is another form of Junk mail and i'm just giving away my address to more people who will send more junk mail.
 
Re: stopping junk mail

I'm pretty sure that eliminating junk mail would cut down US paper usage by about 50%. Save the rainforest indeed.

I don't think we get paper trees from the rainforest. ;)

But as I've tried explaining to people before -and laughably they don't get it- use of paper promotes the growth of trees. Since we need to grow them to produce paper.

Anyway, if bulk mailing was eliminated it's likely postal rates would skyrocket.
 

1) Do you like or hate junk mail? If you hate it do you have a
NO JUNK MAIL sign on your letter box?

I think they'd just throw junk mail in even if i put a notice outside. I hate most junk mail unless it's a restaurant menu.
I likes food.
US City Letter Carrier here.

I don't know about Japan but in the US we work for the person who pays the postage, not the owner of the mailbox. If they pay us it is our duty to deliver it. Many carriers however do break the rules and read the " no junk mail" sign and stop delivery. Of the twenty something people I have known to be fired all but one were fired for honoring "no junk mail" signs.

On the postal news portals every year we see stories of mass firings done by the OIG office over those ads and other "junk" mail. Just last week was the story of a two carriers arrested for in one case dumping those ads and in another case not forwarding or sending address corrections to advertisers who paid for that premium service. Two such mass raids by the Inspectors General happened to my station and my former station. 16 people were out of work without pay for 3 months as the union fought to get their jobs back. And in those cases it was because the ads were put in the paper tray under the mail box and not stuffed into the old style no longer Postmaster General authorized boxes. And that is the only reason they survived with just suspensions.

Recently my district got a market ad contract back from the Los Angeles Times and already the advertiser is grumbling and sending out their own inspectors again accusing us of not delivering. Should they see those signs on the routes those are the first boxes they open to see if the ads have been delivered or just 1st Class mail.

I know those signs draw attention, having seen people walked off of my work floor, they always do that publically in the postal service as an example, I know that anytime I see that sign special attention is made to put the ads there. Should I come back the next day and the ads are removed and left on top of the mailbox unless you endorsed it as return to sender it is going right back in your box incase an inspector is behind me thinking I just left such mail out and didn't place it in your box.
 
Maybe I should get two mailboxes. Mark one "Junk mail", and link it to a chute down to an incinerator or something....

What I'm left wondering is who this "Current Resident" is that most of my mail seems to be addressed to. No one by that name lives here!
 
In Australia we bascially a few different types of junk mail.

The first type are brochures and catalogues from places like supermarkets, hardware stores, department stores etc. This junk mail is not delivered by the postman put by local people hired to do it. Most of these catalogues are from business that are members of the Australian Catalogue Association and come under the regulations of The Distribution Standards Board. This board states that NO JUNK MAIL signs must be honoured.

The second type of is from business that are not members of the ACA. This usually means such business as local pizza joints and estate agents, church groups etc. This only accounts for about 10% of junk mail.

Then we do have the unaddressed and addressed mail from the postman. If we have a NO JUNK MAIL sign on our letterbox the posties have been instructed not to deliver unaddressed junk mail. The have to deliver addressed junk mail but one can contact the Australian Direct Marketing Association and get put on their NO NOT MAIl list. This covers most but no all of addressed junk mail. Junk mail delivered by the postman accounts for about 10% of all junk mail.

Having a NO JUNK MAIL sign therefore cuts out more that 80% of all junk mail.
 
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Maybe I should get two mailboxes. Mark one "Junk mail", and link it to a chute down to an incinerator or something....

What I'm left wondering is who this "Current Resident" is that most of my mail seems to be addressed to. No one by that name lives here!
That segregated mail is just what our Inspector General is trying to avoid. The only reason advertisers pay postage rather then hire someone to hang their product on your doorknob is to mix it with 1st Class mail. To force you to touch it because something important might be with it.

A bigger problem the "current resident", "smart shopper" neighbor, etc is the mail with a former residents name and the "or current resident" endorsement. Sometimes the endorsement is put in the strangest places on a mail piece. Although I don't know any career carrier to get fired over missing it casual part time employees have been,
 
1) Do you like or hate junk mail? If you hate it do you have a NO JUNK MAIL sign on your letter box?
Sometimes it's ok but compared to those three or four times a year where I'm looking for something special it's bloody annoying getting a couple of kilos of junk every week.
More than ½ of all my garbage (by volume) is junk mail (that I haven't even read!)
I have recently started asking for the junk by e-mail, and as soon as this new law here (about where our mail boxes must be placed and about what kind of junk mail we would like to receive) comes into effect (1'st of December (or is it January?)) I'm not accepting ANY junk snail-mail any more.
2) What do you hate getting most in the mail?
Summonings.
3) What do you really look forward to receiving in the mail?
Nothing really, save for the occasional stuff I've ordered and the voter's card we get every time there is some chance to exercise democracy.
Personal letters and postcards are ok too, but I'm an infrequent letter writer myself so not a lot of that :(
4) If you see the postman deliver your mail do you go straight out and collect it?
Yes, to clear all the junk off the steps (I even put up a paper recycling bin right next to the door for that purpose :) ) -in the future no more though.
5) Do you ever send away for free samples etc?
No.
In Australia we bascially a few different types of junk mail.

The first type are brochures and catalogues from places like supermarkets, hardware stores, department stores etc. This junk mail is not delivered by the postman put by local people hired to do it.
Only ½ of my junk mail of that sort is delivered in that way, the other ½ is delivered by the letter carrier. But as the letter carrier is going to need a key to get into the building where our mail boxes are (this new law of ours) we'll be able to put the no junk-stickers on our individual mail boxes -and as those are delivered by the post office they do accept them :) -PLUS: there won't be any other way to deliver mail to us so the other ½ of the junk cannot be delivered to us -unless whomever carries it around just throws it in the street (which means they'd be littering).
 
1) Do you like or hate junk mail? If you hate it do you have a NO JUNK MAIL sign on your letter box?

I don't mind it, actually. Sometimes I read it, mostly I bin it, but it doesn't bother me. I specifically chose not to register with the Mail Preference Service (whereas I signed up for the telephone equivalent) so clearly I must like some of it.

2) What do you hate getting most in the mail?

Bills obviously. Specifically the ones for the ground maintenance charge where I live, which seems to escalate by ridiculous amounts every 6 months...

3) What do you really look forward to receiving in the mail?

Anything I've been shopping online for!

4) If you see the postman deliver your mail do you go straight out and collect it?

I'm almost never in when he calls. On the rare occasions I am, no I don't.

5) Do you ever send away for free samples etc?

Yes I do. I'm cheap. :D
 
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