The great junk mail challenge

[LEAKYSEALS951]

There was another thread here recently about junk mail.
It really is getting out of hand. I don't have a trash service, so I have to take it to the dump, so it is a real inconvenience.

What I am thinking is this- collect junkmail for a week, weigh it, and send in pictures of it.

I am on day three. SEVEN pounds already!

Let the games begin.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

In graduate school I remember reading a story about a guy who built a very efficient / tight envelope microhouse in the Colorado Rockies for short money and heated it for FREE for an entire Colorado winter using nothing by junk mail and a high-efficiency furnace. He had made efforts to get himself on lots of mail distribution lists but regardless, it was completely free and his only costs were the construction costs and his electric bill. Brilliant idea IMHO. I’ll see if I can find a write-up on it.

[Rick Lee]

I can't participate because junk mail never makes it into my house. I have a giant box in the garage for dumping it before I enter the house. Better yet, I usually grab the mail on my out to run errands and then dump the junk mail in garbage cans in front whichever retail business I'm visiting.

[GH85Carrera]

The vast majority of the mail I get is junk. I do 100% of my bill paying and banking online. Any company I do business with is notified, do not mail me stuff to me.

My parents loved shopping from catalogs. They both ordered a lot and this time of year the would average 6 to 8 catalogs per day. I still get some of those that will not quit. I never order from a catalog. They all just go in the recycle bin.

[Evans, Marv]

Junk mail doesn't even make it to my house. That's why I have a PO box and no mail box at the house. I just check my mail whenever I feel like it and the junk mail goes into the recycle bin at the PO.

[stomachmonkey]

My Financial Advisor eclipses all junk mail combined.

[dad911]

My father used to stuff junk mail into the prepaid junk mail return envelopes.... and mail it back....

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

My Financial Advisor eclipses all junk mail combined.

Lemme guess - Wells Fargo or Edward Jones?

[masraum]

I live in a small-ish apt complex. I've been told by our old mail person that this route, when done properly is an 11 hour route. It's not unusual for our mail person to get to our place at 6 or 6:30.

The other day, I saw our current mail person in our mail room distributing our mail. Then a bit later, I saw them at the back of their truck with a dolly in the horizontal configuration with at least 6 large, full boxes going towards our dumpster. I was curious, and found myself back downstairs about 15 mins later just as I saw their truck leaving the complex. I went to the dumpster and sure enough, there must have been 100-200 pounds of flyers and crap in the dumpster. I checked and it was nothing but that crap. I felt like calling them back and giving them some cash. I'm all for them skipping the junk mail. Fortunately, our management realized early on that most of the tenants didn't take their junkmail to their apt, so they converted one of the big garbage cans to a "junk-mail-recycle" bin. It's generally pretty full.

I've tried to opt out of as much of that crap as possible. Selling the old home and moving to the apt was the best thing we ever did, but it's slowly growing again. We'd probably get a lot more if it wasn't for lazy mail people.

[id10t]

Best spam/junk mail story - Alan Ralsky was a self-made millionaire from sending spam emails. The slashdot geeks found out about it, and spammed him using junk mail.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/12/11/spammer_gets_junk_mailed/

The thread where it got planned -

https://it.slashdot.org/story/02/11/22/1658256/another-millionaire-spammer-story

[rwest]

I think junk mail is great- subsidizes the post office and keeps my stamp prices low.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by rwest

I think junk mail is great- subsidizes the post office and keeps my stamp prices low.

What are these "stamp" things that you speak of?

I don't think we "mail" more than about 3-5 envelops per year. We may "ship" another 2-4 items, but the post office is such a PITA that we would be much more likely to use the brown truck for anything larger than an envelope.

[porsche930dude]

We canceled our garbage service 3 years ago because we realized it was mostly paper and burnables. We have a burn barrel out back that gets used quite often. Plastic and glass go to the recycle dumpster at my brothers work. And a little bag occasionally goes to the nearest garbage can at the gas station or super market. My neighbor estimated that he saved around 12k by not having garbage service for 20 years.

[A930Rocket]

We wouldn’t get any mail if it wasn’t for
my MIL. She sends in all kinds of money to people asking for donations. In turn we get more and more junk mail.

I throw it away before she sees it.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by rwest

I think junk mail is great- subsidizes the post office and keeps my stamp prices low.

I might use one stamp for every ten large garbage bags of unwanted mail (removing my name/addy, etc.) I receive. I'd pay $20 a stamp instead....and live happily ever after. This past election season was unreal

[Arizona_928]

I look at the stamp. If it's not first class then it gets chucked.

side note. the post office will only forward/return periodicals, first class, and priority items. Everything else gets thrown away. presort and all that other junk is thrown away at the post office if it can't be delivered.