Motivated by Blog Action Day and These Come From Trees, I started thinking about all the physical junk mail that I still receive every day of every week even after filling out the JunkBusters form. My main source of frustration is with the PennySaver USA circular that I seem to receive twice weekly. Do you get this too? I always put them in the recycling bin and never, ever read them. I don't receive a paper either but that's probably not surprising.I found out that you can request to be removed from their circulation by writing them a letter.
The quick math on stopping a circular like this from arriving in you mailbox every week: If one Penny Saver is roughly 1 ounce (I'm guessing) and a delivery once a week, you will have saved 3.25 pounds of wasted paper by the end of one year or 32.5 pounds over 10 years! If they send twice weekly as I suspect, then the savings is even greater.
I sent my request using EZ Gram - a service that allows you to write your letter online and they take care of the stamps and envelopes business (even better, EZ Gram allows you one free letter). The site is a little wonky and by that I mean slow and javascript takes a while to load but it's worth the wait and only $1 for additional letters.
Here is what I wrote to the Penny Saver folks:
Dear Circulation Dept,
I am writing to be removed from you Penny Saver circular.
I don't have time to read it and I end up throwing it away
every week. You can save some money by removing my home
address from your circulation rolls:
123 Main St
Anywhere, CA
I appreciate your time and thank you for your assistance with this matter.
Sincerely,
Jason Shellen
Homeowner
Here's hoping it does the trick and I'll be on the lookout for other ways to reduce waste.
[updates: You can unsubscribe online from ValPak coupon mailings. Another large direct mail house that favors sending out a random bundle of leaflets and ads is ADVO, who also have a convenient way to opt-out of mailings online. '5 to 6 weeks until the mailings stop', just in time for Christmas!]
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