Junk Mail Travail

Sometimes junk mail is just annoying, like those Val-Pack coupon booklets for Sleepys' mattresses and Manhattan Taxi, other times misleading, appearing to be a bill when really it's just another offer for better APR, or maybe a good-guy organization that you already give to or just don't include on your list for whatever reason and basically don't need any reminders about. For good-guy groups or candidates I'm interested in I always ask them to email instead and most are responsive. I get off the list for a while, and then some signature or purchase or donation jump starts it all back up again. 


This is one of the creepier items I've received in the junk mail category. 






I waited way too long to look at it, so I guess I missed that 24-hour window for a God-given financial windfall (just so wrong, praying for money? Have these people ever laid eyes on the Bible or tried squeezing a camel through the eye of a pin?) One method I've co-opted recently is opening stuff, asking to be removed, and then sending back in the postage page envelope. So that's what I was about to do with this prayer rug when I just had to post about it. It's just too weird. Hmmm, I'm gonna check off... "A Closer Walk With Jesus"... and why not throw in "A New Car" while you're at it? 


According to the EPA junk mail breaks the scale at 4 million tons annually. Millions of tax dollars are hemorrhaged to get rid of it. Only a fifth of it gets recycled. 


Has anyone had success putting a stop to this? I know there is the National Do Not Mail list. Definitely worth signing up for. My sister tried catalog choice, which didn't seem to have much of an impact. The EPA has some good ideas here. Let me know if you have any more. It's this constant deluge, and I know I can recycle it without even opening it. But still it feels so wasteful, annoying and --as in the case of the prayer rug with Jesus' eyes that are closed but open as you stare at them (it works, I tried it)-- downright disturbing.



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