Save up your junk mail – It’s junk mail revenge day!

Filed in Blog by on November 11, 2008 22 Comments
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return-to-senderIt’s a bit short notice, but I’ve been catching up with Robert’s blog over at Stop Junk Mail. On 15th November you’re invited to send all your junk mail back to the sender!

Hopefully, you’ve already opted out by now with our trusty guide, but if there are any companies still squeezing their crap through your letterbox, then save up all the mail between now and 15th and post it back.

Doing this HAS resulted in changes here at Chez Green. The thing is, you see, the business who sent it to you have to pay for return postage so the smaller companies soon get the message. Larger companies sometimes need a few returns before they finally respond.

If you’re a facebook fan, then why not join the Junk Mail Revenge Day group to keep up with the latest news and be sure to get a reminder in plenty of time next year?

This week I’ve had catalogues from Neals Yard, Early Learning centre, and Temple Lodge publishing. All are stickered up and ready to go back, as I can access any of these companies online or through email. Who’s up for a day of junk mail revenge? Let’s see how many pieces of junk we can send back between us!

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About the Author ()

I am a long time supporter of the Green and Sustainable lifestyle. After being caught in the Boscastle floods in 2004, our family begun a journey to respect and promote the importance of Earth's fragile ecosystem, that focussed on reducing waste. Inspired by the beauty and resourcefulness of this wonderful planet, I have published numerous magazine articles on green issues and the author of four books.

Comments (22)

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  1. Kris says:

    I’m pleased to say that it looks like my opt-out is finally taking effect as my mail has dropped to very little. It will still take some fine-tuning as things like car insurance price comparison seem to make you a target for hungry insurers. And I was annoyed/exhausted to get sent yet another set of stickers with my name and address on from some utterly random charity – I think this is my personal bugbear as I’ve no use at all for these and find it rude and intrusive. I wish I’d known about the big send back, though my details being on them would still be a worry.

  2. esther says:

    I’ve been doing this for a while now, inserting a letter telling them why I don”‘t want their paper publicity anymore….I’m a very calm person, but everytime I get junk in my mail, with my name and adress, I just freak out!

  3. It’s funny how you take things for granted. I’ve had no real junk mail for ages. My problem is the blimmin leaflets that still come through. I haven’t put up a sticker on my letterbox yet because there are some leaflets I want to have, but I’m close to putting up a message that says loudly…I do not want to join a gym, order a takeaway or go to a nightclub thank you!

  4. I did something like this a while ago. The kids and I opened ALL our junk mail for a week, took out their own prepaid envelopes, put someone else’s junk into it, having hand written the message “I want your junk as much as you want this, please stop sending me these mailings.” with enough details so they could take me off their list, and then posted them off.

    Most of it stopped after doing that a couple of times.

  5. esther says:

    I actually do not always use prepaid enveloppes, ’cause some of them, have enveloppes, you have to put a stamp on, or don’t have enveloppes at all…which doesnt stop me from sending them back their mail, and, instead of a stamp, I write that the receiver will pay for it…never had problems with that…

  6. Di Hickman says:

    Unless you live in America you truly do not even begin to understand Junk Mail! Trust me! We actually reuse most of ours for packing material for DH’s hobby business, but the personally addressed stuff we’ll be sending back.

  7. I do that too, I have a shredder and the results are great for padding parcels. It gets used as pet bedding and gets put on the compost too.

  8. Katy says:

    Every so often we get a slew of car insurance junk mail with our address and someone else’s name (not a previous occupant). It’s hard to stop it via MPS as there seems to be an infinite variety of misspellings of this annoying person’s first and surnames!

  9. Poppy says:

    All my unwanted mail has been going back in the post with Refused, RTS or a note asking to be removed from their lists. I will save them up for a week or so. This time of year is a real pain as they are all desperate for us to buy, buy, buy!!

    I have also put a note on my letter box for No Pizza or takeaway delivery leaflets which seems to have worked so far. Still getting Somerfield etc from the Postie though. I’ll have to have aother word in her shelllike 😉

  10. Mrs Green says:

    Oooo, now you lot are very mischievous with your endeavours to reduce the junk! Only two more days to go before the big revenge day, so keeps storing yours up and I’ll try and remember to give more notice next year so that we can have a real fest!

  11. maisie says:

    Most of mine I just write on the envelope return to sender not known at this address.

    Some of the bigger companies like the car ins etc, I use their prepaid envelope and send it all back to them asking politely to be removed from the mailing list.

  12. Christine says:

    Can’t remember where I saw it, but another way to get revenge on the junk mailers is to send their postage paid envelopes back to them attached to a box with a rock in it. Or a lot of rocks. Or a brick. They end up paying much more in postage. I haven’t done it myself, but it seems like it would get the message across much faster.

  13. Mrs Green says:

    Sounds good Maisie. I shall be getting an onslaught of car insurance mail soon as ours is up for renewal mid December.

    Hi Christine; welcome to the site. Your comment made me laugh out loud. I’m not sure I have the courage to do that, but it would definitely make a point (and probably get you removed swiftly off the mailing list 😀 )
    I’ve just been reading some of your blog – it’s great. How are the migraines now?

  14. maisie says:

    Don’t forget though to do comparisons online and purchase through a cahback site if possible, sometimes it can work that you can get something basically for free with the cahsback.
    eg. I got identical cover and breakdown cover for just over the same price,as just cover ,with a new company compared to my old one, then got cashback on top so actually saved twice.

  15. Poppy says:

    8 RTS items and one *real* letter posted today 🙂

  16. Mrs Green says:

    Thanks Maisie; I start off with online comparisons but get so bored of the repetition. I use Quidco for cashback – which sites do you like?

    Well done Poppy! We only had a few pieces of mail, but it all helps. Next year they had better watch out!

  17. maisie says:

    I also tend to use Quidco, but have also signed up for pigsback (gives points), ipoints (again points), mypoints (points) and topcashback (cash back).

    The 3 points sites you save up the points ( most of which I get from clicking links in emails) and then redeem them for vouchers or items; but with mypoints once you hit 3000 points you get £20 cheque. If you do online grocery shopping use http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk and sign up to ipoints when you send your trolley to whichever store you are using you get points.

    I have done this for the last couple of years just over and have had 2 x £20 cheques, a £10 voucher to spend in any of a number of stores and also a CD and a DVD.

    I do some daily clicks on Quidco as well, soon adds up, its nice getting a few pounds back from quidco each month for doing nothing.

  18. Kris says:

    I like rpoints as you can be paid into your bank account or to paypal, but these days I really only earn points there during the Christmas shopping blitz or when any insurance needs doing. (Though not the car ins this year *sigh* as I had to sort it out on the phone).

    Thank you everyone for the inspiration on rts mailing! I had yet another charity batch of stickers (strange, it seems like the mail pref service has kicked in now, but still getting this sort of thing) which make me really angry as they combine wastage of the worst sort with privacy invasion of the worst sort… (ie, stickers and my address!) I stood there fuming but after a minute though of returning them and checked for a prepaid envelope amidst the gumph. There was one so everything has been stuffed back in with a caustic instruction that I do *not* want their spam in future. And you know, I did feel much better for it.

  19. Mrs Green says:

    Gosh; it’s a real minefield all these sites. I don’t even understand what click sites are or how on earth they can pay you simply for clicking on something **scratches head**

    Good for you, Kris – let’s hope these charities finally get your message. What really got to me when I supported a few was that I would rather they KEPT the stuff they sent me and put my money to good use, rather than using my donations to send me crap I didn’t want in the first place.
    Grrrrr.

  20. Dave says:

    Just throw it all in your recycle bin… its that simple

  21. Mrs Green says:

    @Dave: Hello Dave; well it IS simple to throw it in your recycling bin, but the idea of reducing come way up the hierarchy before recycling. Let’s stop it at source and save some of precious trees and use return to send before recycling 😉

  22. Karen says:

    I have been attaching the red Junk Mail /return to sender sticker to my junk mail for the last year. It has cut down the amount sent to me.

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