Okay, this is a multi-part query; responses will graded on accuracy, pluck, and how good it looks in a bikini.
Srsly, I’ve long wondered why I can’t put a sign on my mailbox telling the mailman that I will not accept junk mail, political fliers, the weekly advertising junk mail with coupons, etc.
I don’t want any of it. It goes right in the trash, unread. But see, that’s what bothers me: it’s just trash. I’m being made responsible for this trash. If I leave it in my mailbox until it overflows and blows down the street, I’d be the one held responsible for littering.
So: why do I have to accept junk mail, and why can’t a law be crafted so I don’t have to accept it, without said law running afoul of the Constitution?
Also, for extra bonus doughnut points: why isn’t it littering when the newspaper throws a “free” (but unwanted) newspaper on my lawn? I’m pretty sure if I tossed a kilo or so of paper on someone’s yard, I’d get charged with littering and illegal dumping. Why does the newspaper get a pass?
Because you get delivery free, that’s why. It would take a lot more work to sort through the mail. One size fits all. Maybe we should have a “premium” service option. But even then, it would be an arms race between the junk senders disguising their junk as “real” mail and the ability of the PO to filter it.
There’s actually a petition circulating to create a junk mail opt-out, similar to the “Do Not Call” list of the last decade. Not sure how much traction it has. And those free newspapers? On page 2 is the phone number to their circulation department. If you don’t call them to complain, they don’t have to stop.
Generally, though, direct mailers and newspaper publishers have lobbyists to keep the laws the way they currently are.
Not sure where you are, but in Australia and New Zealand that’s exactly what people do- put a “NO JUNK MAIL” sign on their letterbox, and hey presto, the junk mail stops.
We would indeed need a law like “do not call”, because much of the junk mail I get comes in respectable looking envelopes. I would not want my PO decided which of those I get.
Of course, I do all my banking and such online, so almost everything I get is junk mail. No one sends letters anymore (except Christmas and Birthdays). A business might be another matter, but not a residence.
You don’t pay anything for the service, the USPS owns the space in your mailbox, and it’s not trash – they’re spending money to send it to you. That’s why.
As for the free newspaper, if you don’t want it, call the paper. If they don’t stop delivery, that IS littering in most places, and you should make a complaint.
Stream of commerce and all of that. If I open up, say, a restaurant near your home, I obviously want to try to induce you to come to my business. It seems that the least intrusive way to contact you would be to send a flyer to your home. If you don’t want to read it, it takes you about 1.5 seconds to drop it in your garbage can.
We don’t want to build a wall between everyone so that simple written communications can be banned, do we? Plus, it has a benefit to you. Maybe you come to my restaurant and like it so much that it becomes a weekly thing for you and the family. I agree that the phone calls are too intrusive, and with cell phones that part has mostly died out. But we have to leave open SOME line of communication between citizens.
I mean, I can stop people from calling my phone with solicitations, I can stop people from knocking on my door with solicitations, why can’t I stop people from using my mailbox for solicitations?
If a person wants no contact from businesses, why can’t he stop businesses from contacting him?
I understand the right to say what you want, but what about my right not to listen to it? Or my right to not have to clean up after your business’s announcement? I can’t be forced to clean up after you have a grand opening ceremony after all.
Radio, TV, and poster ads? They’re just as effective (if not more so) than flyers and junk mail, and don’t generally require felling acres of trees to produce things no-one will ever read.
It is trash, to me, and I don’t want to receive it.
I’ve tried that, but it doesn’t stop. Why would it? :rolleyes: All the paper has to do is tell me “okay, we’ll stop doing that” over the phone, and then conveniently never enter that into their supposed database of people who don’t want their newspaper. Nobody keeps a database like that.
Well, if the postal carrier sees a sign that says “No Junk Mail” on a mailbox, he could keep it and take it back to the post office, instead of depositing it in said mailbox. I tried this once, to no avail. I even changed it to read “Do Not Deliver Mail Addressed To ‘Or Current Occupant’” but that didn’t have the desired effect either.
Most junk mail has a postal permit for bulk postage. That’s how you can tell (a lot of) what’s junk mail and what is actually destined for a real person who needs or wants it.
Three seconds of your time are not as valuable as you think they are. Throw it away or recycle it and be happy that this is the worst problem in your life.
Ah but that won’t help. Mail gets delivered whether or not there is a mailbox. It gets dumped on your doorstep, then the wind blows it away, then the police come and give you a ticket for littering.
Do you really want the USPS making judgment calls as to what is junk mail and what isn’t? I’ve got nothing against the postal service, but I don’t trust anyone to make that decision.
The only way this would work would be to make a Do Not Send list as mentioned about, that you could use to opt out of mailings. It would have to have a wording similar to the Do Not Call list, which unfortunately means that charities and political parties would probably be exempt.
When i lived in Alaska, there was a neighborhood mailbox which I never bothered to get a key for, as I has a post office box in town. I have no idea what they did with mail addressed to my street address, which I never used. If they delivered junk mail, I never saw it.
Well, I’d be okay with that. At least I wouldn’t get the weekly 80 page grocery store coupon ads. That would be a whole lot of trash I wouldn’t have to be responsible for.
I have to keep wondering tho: legally, why am I obligated to accept these mailings?
Sure. A good start would be to categorize unsolicited mail as Unsolicited Mail (UM). Unsolicited Mail may include business flyers and advertisements, credit card offers, and any other type of ‘cold’ mailing. Mailers can get discounted postage for this category, which will be noted on the postage, but may not use the category for anything other than unsolicited mail or be fined heavily and even restricted from using it. Consumers may OPT OUT of receiving this category of mail on an annual basis in much the same way the DNC list works. It’s easy enough for the postal carrier to determine those who have opted out because you get a label to put on your mailbox indicating UM is not deliverable. Any mailers disregarding/bypassing the Opt Out by miscategorizing mailouts are fined heavily.
Lastly, junk mail is not trash. The vast majority of it is recyclable material. Please recycle it.
