Shed Unsightly Pounds of Junk Mail for a Healthier Environment

Consumers don't know it, but their personal information is being traded and sold in support of a $10 billion legally-operated industry. Without their participation, and without their consent. The result is volumes of unwanted mail and solicitations, and increased potential for identity theft.

50% of junk mail is thrown out unopened or unread, and the rate of response to junk mail is less than 2%. Junk mail violates our privacy, contributes significantly to global warming and wastes an average of eight months of every American's life!

Junk mail is more than just an annoyance; it's an environmental crisis. At least 100 million trees are destroyed each year to produce junk mail, and 28 billion gallons of water are used to produce the paper - creating global warming emissions equivalent to the emissions from 3.7 million cars.

Junk mail also has a direct negative economic impact as well. An estimated $320 million of local taxes are used to dispose of junk mail annually, and transportation of junk mail costs about $550 million per year, not to mention the air pollution generated during transport.

Each year, 19 billion catalogs are mailed to
American consumers.

What's the impact?

• Number of trees used - 53 million trees
  
• Amount of paper used - 3.6 million tons
  
• Energy used to produce this volume of paper - 38 trillion BTUs, enough to power 1.2 million homes per year
• Contribution to global warming - 5.2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, equal to the annual emissions of two million cars
• Waste water discharges from this volume of paper - 53 billion gallons of water, enough to fill 81,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools

Just as the Do Not Call Registry freed Americans from telemarketers, a Do Not Mail Registry would give us the choice to stop junk mailers from violating our privacy, wasting our time and damaging the environment.

The Do Not Call list rallied 67+ million people, now it's time to do the same for our environment!

Sign the petition from ForestEthics.org
Do Not Mail Registry petition

GreenDimes also has a petition available for the Do Not Mail Registry. It's not clear if this the same petition, but it only takes a minute to fill in.

Sign the petition from GreenDimes.com
Do Not Mail Registry petition

Catalogs were the #1 problem I had with junk mail, and my mailbox would fill up every 2 days. Then I found CatalogChoice.org

Catalog Choice is a FREE service that lets you decline paper catalogs you no longer wish to receive. The Catalog Choice community is presently 744,782 persons strong, having already opted out of 9,987,609 catalogs.

It's super quick to setup an account (and free). Then, I simply collected the catalogs and declined them online. You'll want to save the catalogs so you can get the Customer # off the back, as this makes removing your name easier.

Interesting Tip: If you find the same Customer # used on multiple catalogs - they share the same mailing list with each other. For instance, I found that Williams Sonoma, The Pottery Barn and West Elm all had the same customer # for me. I had shopped online at Williams Sonoma, but never from the other two sites. But the catalogs started coming none-the-less.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Consumer Credit Reporting Companies are permitted to include your name on lists used by creditors or insurers to make firm offers of credit or insurance that are not initiated by you ("Firm Offers"). The FCRA also provides you the right to "Opt-Out", which prevents Consumer Credit Reporting Companies from providing your credit file information for Firm Offers.

That's right - Equifax, Experion, TransUnion and Innovis provide your name to the companies sending you these pre-approved offers!

OptOutPrescreen.com is the official Consumer Credit Reporting Industry website to accept and process request from consumers to Opt-In or Opt-Out of these pre-approved credit, loan and insurance offers. It's a FREE service, and only takes a few minutes to sign up and remove yourself from these lists.

If you Opt-Out online, it's good for Five Years. If you want to Opt-Out permanently you have to mail in the form provided.

You didn't choose to Opt-In,
but you can Opt-Out!

Now it's time for you to get your name OFF all these crazy Direct Marketing Lists. Luckily, there is an awesome, fast and FREE resource to help you do this.

Head over to ProQuo.com and after creating your FREE ProQuo account, you will have your own electronic "dashboard." Here you can request removal of your personal information from thousands of lists and organizations that have your information on file:

• Coupon Packs like RedPlum, ValPak and Penny Saver
• Marketing Lists and Data Brokers
• Other Directories like WhitePages.com, Switchboard.com and more..

This is truly the Holy Grail to stop the unwanted Junk Mail. Why? Because the main Direct Marketing companies are listed here and you can place a direct STOP request with a number of them. Some you have to send mail to - but here's where it gets awesome! ProQuo creates a Ready-to-Go form letter for you. Just Print, Sign and Mail - Less than 15 minutes to get off these lists for Good!

So Who Are These Companies? Get ready for it....

Data Management Inc serves the direct marketing industry and provides database maintenance, mailing list processing and list fulfillment. They may have your name and address in their files.

US Data Corporation is an aggregator and seller of consumer marketing lists. They have information on over 300 million Americans and make mailing lists, telemarketing lists and sales leads available for purchase.

InfoUSA is a large scale provider of consumer information products and databases of marketing services. They maintain a database of 210 million US Consumers and they sell access to it to businesses, internet sites and other parties. You are probably on their lists.

CenturyList has a built a database of 220 million individuals and 120 million households. They sell access to consumer profiles and data to businesses in the direct marketing and telemarketing fields. It is probable that you are on the lists they sell.

US Search collects consumer data from public record databases and private record databases, compiles reports and resells this data to both businesses and consumers. The information they collect and sell may include private information about you.

Abacus (Division of Epsilon) collects personal information from catalogs, retailers and other companies - and sells these lists for marketing purposes.

Acxiom collects and sells consumer information as marketing lists, prospecting products and directory products. Acxiom is Highly Likely to have your personal information in their databases.

Frankly, it was Acxiom that really got me involved in researching ways to remove myself from these lists - because what I learned truly unnerved me.
If you want to know what I learned keep reading!

Okay, I warned you. This is the information I found that really pushed me into writing this lens and trying to get the word out to consumers. Some people may find this disturbing, others may get angry. But it is real information!

On Acxiom's website I found the link to buying the individual lists, and the summary of what data is in them. I'll let you judge if you're comfortable with your information being gathered and shared this way - but I certainly wasn't!

Consumer List
"Acxiom rebuilds the InfoBase Consumer List rental file from scratch every two months. We start with over 800 million name and address records only from multiple source contributors i.e. white pages, real property data, and other sources. The 800 million records are processed via National Change of Address (NCOA), Delivery Sequence File (DSF), Locatable Address Conversion Service (LACS), and Acxiom's AbiliTec and BestAddress. Additionally the data is passed against suppression files to eliminate consumers or telephone numbers as appropriate: Acxiom's Decease File, State Attorney General (SAG) data, the Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) do-not-mail and do-not-call lists, and the national FTC do-not-call file."

Bankruptcy List
"These consumers have fallen victim to unfortunate circumstances that have caused them to have to file bankruptcy. Now, They need to re-establish and rehabilitate their credit. New bankruptcy filings are excellent prospects for secured credit cards and other financial products for the credit impaired. Recently discharged bankruptcies are good prospects for auto, bank card and other financial products and services as consumers re-enter the rank of the credit worthy."

New Credit Card List
"Recently issued and now activating a new credit card, these individuals are especially good prospects for direct marketers as they are active buyers who now have a new payment option. As such, these names definitely belong on the "must test" schedule of every direct marketer with apparel and specialty catalogs, insurance, home improvement, furniture, financial services, and merchandise of every variety and price range. Special selections include 30-day hotline, number of credit cards held and bank or retail card type."

Real Property List
"This file is a comprehensive, real property list sourced from the country recorder and assessor records designed to help you target prospects that own real estate. It is built on a bi-monthly basis and comprised of more than 45 million U.S. households."

Business Data
"Our Business Lists include over 18 million individual company names and addresses and more than 15 million senior and middle-management executives by title."

New Homeowners - 6 months & Prior Week
"Our 6 month New Homeowners file contains the most up-to-date real property information directly from U.S. County Recorder's offices. Because we update the file on a weekly basis, you're sure to get the freshest data available. People in this segment are very desirable because they demonstrate stability as well as purchasing power. New homeowners establish new buying patterns and service relationships to reflect their priorities."

New Borrowers - 6 months & Prior Week
"Our 6 month New Refi/Equity Borrowers file contains the most up-to-date real property information directly from U.S. County Recorder's offices. Because we update the file weekly, you're sure to get the freshest data available. Since New Borrowers have just gained a substantial amount of buying power, they make a great target for marketers of home improvements, appliances, furniture and more."

New Movers - 6 Months
"Our six-month New Mover database is rebuilt/refreshed on a monthly basis. At that time the majority of our new records are added and records appearing on the base for more than six months are deleted. General release of the file is scheduled for the 4th Friday of each month and is available on ListDirect the following Monday."

You can Get Rid of Junk Mail, help Protect Your Identity, and make a Positive Impact on Our Environment. And you can do it all for FREE.

I've done the research above, and if you use the links provided above it's a simple process. You can remove yourself from all these lists in LESS THAN AN HOUR!

Just Follow These Four Steps:

• Go to OptOutPrescreen.com and remove from pre-approved offers


• Got to ProQuo.com and remove yourself from the Direct Marketing lists. Print out any forms to mail in.


• Go to CatalogChoice.org and cancel Catalogs you don't want.


• (Optional) Sign the Do Not Mail Registry petitions at ForestEthics.org and GreenDimes.com