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September 12, 2007

Stop paying for junk mail

Don’t you hate it when you buy one thing from a company, once, and are subsequently doomed to forever receive its catalog?

For Christmas one year, Mr. Wallet Mouth gave me a sweater from web retailer Athleta; now our mailbox gets a steady stream of women’s clothing catalogs—in his name.

C3_badge I’ve been fed up with junk mail for a while, and my feeble attempts at opting out haven’t yielded great results (of course, it doesn’t help that I haven’t repeated those efforts since we moved a couple years ago). So I was happy to learn about this month’s Junk Your Junk Mail campaign from Carbon Conscious Consumer (or C3), a project of the Center for a New American Dream.

I used C3’s free web form to generate a bunch of opt-out letters and took the pledge saying I did. I encourage you to do the same. Also be sure to check out the link to petition lawmakers to create a national Do-Not-Junk registry, essentially a Do-Not-Call list for your mailbox.

If all those opt-out letters don’t do the trick, I might pony up the $41 to have 41pounds.org work its anti-junk-mail magic, which it says will get rid of 90 percent of unwanted mail for five years.

Posted at 10:06 AM in Junk mail |

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Comments

"Sweater"?

Ahem. I don't THINK so.

Poodle-fleece hoodie in "flame," yes; sweater, no.

Posted by: Mr. WalletMouth | September 13, 2007 at 12:33 AM

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My buycotts & boycotts

  • April 2008
    I'm going to start buying my canned beans from Eden Foods, for two reasons: it uses custom-made cans that don't contain bisphenol A, and it's an independent, family-operated company.
  • February 2008
    From now on, whenever I order takeout or ask for a doggy bag, I’ll make sure to avoid #6 polystyrene containers (and, of course, Styrofoam).
  • January 2008
    My morning yogurt is now garnished with a combination of bulk granola from Oat Cuisine, a locally owned company, and Food for Life's Ezekiel 4:9 cereal. This instead of Kashi Nuggets (Kashi is owned by Kellogg, and the cereal, despite all the "whole grains" messages on the box, isn't organic and probably contains GMOs) or Grape Nuts, which is owned by Altria (Philip Morris), isn't organic, and almost certainly contains GMOs.
  • October 2007
    Until Kimberly-Clark stops destroying virgin North American forests to make its products, I will boycott it and urge others to do so. Feeling outraged? Call K-C's customer service department: 1-888-525-8388 (North America and Puerto Rico only). Following are the brands to avoid. First, the ones I've heard of: Kleenex, Scott, Scottex, Huggies, Kotex, Depend, Viva, Fiesta, Cottonelle. Now a bunch more: Andrex, Block-it, Camelia, DryNites, GoodNites, Kimcare, KimTech, KleenBebé, KleenGard, Little Swimmers, Page, Peaudouce, Pingos, Plenitud, Poise, Pull-Ups, Snugglers, Subtelle, Tela, Le Trefle, WypAll.
  • October 2007
    First Odwalla was bought by Coca-Cola; then Naked Juice was acquired by Pepsico. I'll buy my juice (when I splurge on fresh-squeezed) from Columbia Gorge, which is family-run and all organic.
  • June 2007
    Started buying my organic yogurt from Straus instead of Trader Joe's after hearing from an organics activist that TJ's drives a really hard bargain with organic-food producers. Plus, Straus is local and demonstrates a clear commitment to the environment: its methane digester captures gas from its cows' manure and generates up to 600,000 kWH of electricity per year. I'd rather pay a little extra to support that.
  • March 2007
    Started buying Wildwood soy creamer instead of Silk after learning that White Wave, Silk’s maker, is owned by Dean Foods, the world’s largest dairy processor and distributor. I'm happier supporting the little(r) guy, and Wildwood is just as good—and less expensive.
  • February 2007
    Resolved to buy gas only from BP/Arco and Sunoco after reading the "Pick Your Poison" guide in Sierra. At the very least, no more patronizing Exxon or 76.
  • October 2006
    Started buying Dr. Bronner's soap after seeing Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap Box. I'm impressed by its charitable giving, treatment of employees, leadership in fair trade and organics, and environmental record. More recently, the company has helped facilitate organic and fair-trade certification for olive-oil makers in Israel and Palestine so that it can buy the oil for use in its products.

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