Junk Buster
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Stop your junk mail! This website has been set up to make it a bit easier to sign up to junk mail opt-out schemes. There are no less than six opt-out services for junk mail and paper directories in the UK - and before Junk Buster was launched they all had to be contacted separately. In just a few clicks you can now contact up to six junk mail opt-out schemes.
Junk Buster is not just about making opting out easier. I set up Junk Buster out of frustration with the junk mail industry's unwillingness to provide a decent service to the millions of people who have no need for advertisements being pushed through their door. There are many things that could be done to make stopping junk mail easier. This here is Junk Buster's manifesto…
The junk mail industry is currently self-regulating. This largely explains why there are so many opt-out schemes and why they don't co-operate. Put simply; the more opt-out schemes there are, the less likely it is people will sign up to them. Hence we got a scheme for addressed junk mail; a scheme for unaddressed mail delivered by Royal Mail; a scheme for unaddressed mail delivered by members of the Direct Marketing Association; a scheme for the Yellow Pages; a scheme for Thomson Local; and a scheme for the BT Telephone Directory. This nonsense should end; the Direct Marketing Association should set up its own official junk buster (which should also include the Telephone and Fax Preference Service).
None of the opt-out services is properly advertised. Only 198,000 households are currently registered with the Door-to-Door Opt-Out, for instance. That's 0.7 per cent of all UK households. The figure for Your Choice is negligible; only 1,600 households have signed up (0.0006 per cent of UK households). Even the Direct Marketing Association would not dare argue that the take up is so low because people actually like junk mail. The simple truth is that people don't know they can opt out. It's time junk mailers start advertising their own opt-out services. Information about opting out should be advertised prominently in every directory; Royal Mail should organise an annual mail-out to tell each and every household in the country about the existence of its opt-out scheme; and that the Mailing Preference Service should be advertised on every piece of junk mail that could have been prevented by signing up to the scheme.
There is no need for opt-out schemes to be run by junk mailers. All opt-out services should be taken away from the industry and run by an independent organisation which cares about people, not junk mailers.
All opt-out schemes should give people the opportunity to register online. Currently, only the Mailing Preference Service allows people to do so. The only reason why the Door-to-Door Opt-Out and Your Choice work with paper confirmation forms is that this makes it more difficult to register. Yell, Thomson Local and BT all refuse to advertise their schemes and don't allow people to opt-out online for that reason - the only way to find out about their opt-out schemes is via websites as these!
You currently need to do no less than three things just to stop unaddressed junk mail. Apart from signing up to the Door-to-Door Opt-Out and Your Choice scheme you also need to get a 'No Junk Mail' sticker (this is because the majority of leaflets coming through the door are not delivered by Royal Mail and or members of the Direct Marketing Association). There is no need for things to be so complicated and discouraging. In Canada, Australia and on mainland Europe people can simply stop commercial leaflets by putting a 'No Junk Mail' sign on their letterbox. Why have all these bureaucratic opt-out schemes if there's such an easy solution?
'No Junk Mail Signs' • Stop Junk Mail Kit • Return to Sender Labels • Envelope Reuse Labels • 'No Junk Shop' Shop
The two opt-out schemes for unaddressed junk mail (Royal Mail's Door-to-Door Opt-Out and Your Choice) will stop roughly 60 per cent of unwanted leaflets. Although that is a significant reduction, you will still have to dispose of nearly a hundred pieces of unaddressed junk mail per annum.
The only way to further reduce junk mail is by getting a 'no junk mail' sign. You might still get the odd take-away menu, but you'll be surprised how many leafleters respect a polite request not to push junk mail through your letter box.
Plus, the stickers give the option to say 'no' to free local newspapers. Stopping these will reduce paper waste by quite a few extra kilos a year.
Not from us, and there are a number of good reasons for this. First of all, signs with the text 'No Junk Mail' are less effective than our stickers. Bulk mailers don't see the literature they deliver as 'junk mail'. Instead, they are convinced that they are providing the public a great service by delivering endless amounts of 'valuable information' and 'special offers'. In the bulk mailer's dictionary, the word 'junk mail' doesn't mean 'unsolicited mail' but 'wrongly targeted mail'. A sign saying ‘No Junk Mail’ is unlikely to deter them.
Secondly, the term 'junk mail' doesn't distinguish between commercial leaflets and non-commercial leaflets. Most people don't want their letter box littered with taxi cards, supermarket leaflets and other rubbish but do want to receive information from for instance their local Fire and Rescue Service. The text 'No commercial leaflets' makes this clear and prevents that leafleters have to make assumptions about what you do and don't see as 'junk mail'.
And finally, the text 'No Junk Mail' puts deliverers of free newspapers in an impossible situation. Some love them, others see them as junk mail in disguise. The only solution for this is to give people the option to say either 'yes' or 'no' to them.
Any 'No Junk Mail' sign is not more than a (usually polite) request not to bother you with unaddressed junk mail. Legally, there is little you can do against bulk mailers who ignore your sign. Our advice is to try to rid these poluters of their ignorance using the 'justice for the price of an envelope' approach. Stick any leaflet you receive in an envelope addressed to the offender, enclose a little note asking the sender to respect letterbox stickers in the future and put it in the post, unstamped. Royal Mail will notify the addressee that an item needs to be collected from the Post Office and that postage plus a £1 administration fee are due. It's bound to make junk mailers think twice.
Yes, we can offer a discount for orders of 10 items or more. For a quote, please contact us.
© 2009 by Stop Junk Mail, 2 Mill Hill Road, Norwich, NR2 3DP
