Junk Mail Out of Control, so Do Something Useful With It.

reply to post by charlyv


I work in Waco, TX.

About the glossy paper; while the older-style paper had more toxic ink, the newer stuff generally contains soy-based inks that are less toxic. I would still avoid burning them, however. But, if you're in a pinch, then burn away my friend. Just make sure what you're burning in is well ventilated.

Are you familiar with a rocket mass heater? They're more efficient at burning sticks and use orders of magnitude less wood for the same amount of heat, and with the added thermal mass they emit heat for days on a few short hours of burning, and they emit very little to no smoke or smoke smell. I'm not sure what kind of home you live in, but search these forums or Google it. It may take a little bit of labor, but it's worth the effort in the end.

reply to post by charlyv


Used to encourage junk mail. I'd use it for firestarting and fire fuel. Compress roll the mail and use as fuel in the fireplace/firepit. Always used my dogs name...easy to do.

Non shiny, non plastic pieces could be shredded up, mixed with wax and oil..made into charcoal grill starters.

Free fuel is free IMO.

reply to post by Deemo Diablo

Saw this done with two 5 gallon buckets as well.

reply to post by charlyv


I never have to buy firelighters thanks to junk mail. Saves money and better than recycling or landfill.

Charlyv,

I feel your pain, it seems if you make a purchase of any kind online these days you're sold to the highest bidder as a consumer willing to spend money. Like you, I began receiving mass quantities of junk mail, from credit offers, insurance, time-share to coupons. If I didn't check my mailbox for 3 days it would usually be filled with junk mail plus a bill or two. How much does it cost these companies to do this to us?

The particulars on pricing and volume for Business Reply Mail, in the United States can be found:
Here
and
Here

Keep in mind if a business reply envelope isn't used the company isn't charged for it and the permit is based on expected return volume. Aside from the permit price and annual maintenance fee which comes to about $905.00. For an expected return volume of 11,247 pieces, to which the permit applies, the letters themselves come to $6,410.79 annually if the expected volume is reached.

On average I get about 14 business reply envelopes or post cards a week. If I returned every one at $0.57 each that adds up to approximately $414 a year in postage and that's just for my junk mail alone. According to the U.S. Census for 2013 the total number of households in the U.S. was numbered at 304,130,000. If everyone of us stateside returned every business reply envelope we ever received in a year, using my numbers as a benchmark, that comes to a whopping $126,201,784,800.00 in postage! That's no small sum. And its worth mentioning that in a recent article by the Huffington Post, the USPS, was losing $25 million a day or about $9 billion a year.

Article

So, what to do about this junk mail epidemic? How can we encourage them to send less? It occurred to me when I received a gift that I didn't particularly want from a friend but politely accepted. I gave it to someone else who wanted it, this is otherwise known as re-gifting. I decided to apply the same theory to junk mail by returning the business reply envelope to the sender stuffed with a competitors ad, credit offer, or perhaps a local pizza coupon. I started calling it re-junk mail. Once I got started I became obsessed with my new hobby. I began asking neighbors for their junk mail just to obtain the oh-so-precious business reply envelope. As things progressed I started incorporating irony in my replies to make it more fun. For example, If you remember the Martha Stewart flap and subsequent arrest for conspiracy and insider trading a few years back; I tore the bail bonds page out of my local phone book, (another waste of paper) and re-junked it with a Martha Stewart Living business reply envelope. Essentially, you could possibly turn the system against itself by re-junk mailing and you'll be reducing the deficit of the USPS by having the corporations foot the bill. I'm not promoting a cause, corporation, or other effort. Just sharing a revelation I had and a new hobby. Peace!

Compact it and make a shed. Use the bricks with some sort of coating on them, and then build. Reminds me of Minecraft in a way..

reply to post by kalunom


Hello kalunom,
Actually there is a way of stopping mail from a known sender. It works better than the useless telephone do not call list.

Go to the post office and ask for the form that will be sent to your unwanted correspondent. It will be sent by the post office and include notice that the sender is not allowed to use the post office to correspond with you. You are required to give the opinion the you consider previous mail send to you to be obscene, but there is no definition of obscene just the declaration of your opinion.