Stop Junk Mail Forever

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Do packets of ads, coupons, or product samples sent to "occupant" tend to go directly from your mailbox to the circular file? Request that your address (since your name never appears) be removed from the mailing lists of the following companies. They're the major players in this business, distributing literally billions of coupons, fliers, and what have you, to millions of households, every year:

ADVO Inc.
List Service Supervisor
239 West Service Road Hartford, CT 06120
203-520-3200

Donnelley Marketing
Operations Department
6030 North US 301
Elm City, NC 27822
919-236-4301

Carol Wright Gifts
Customer Service
PO. Box 8502
Lincoln, NE 68544
402-474-2018

Harte Hanks Direct Marketing
Last Maintenance
100 Alco Place
Baltimore, MD 21227-2090
410-247-0666

Money Mailer
14271 Corporate Drive
Garden Grove, CA 92643
714-265-4100

Val-Pak Coupons
Address Information Department
P .O. Box 13428
St. Petersburg, FL 34643
800-237-2871

(To come off Val-Pak's lists, send along your complete address label from the next Val-Pak mail ing you receive.)

Want to Sock It to Them?

For the junk you can't seem to stop, here are three protest options:

1. For the few unwanted pieces that come to you via first-class mail, mark them with something like, "Return to Sender. Don't send me your junk." They'll go back to the mailers—at their expense—for them to trash—also at their expense.

2. With third-class mail that's accompanied by a postage-paid envelope, you can stuff the junk into it, and write your rendition of "Stop sending me junk mail" on the outside. Pop it in the mailbox, and again, the mailer pays.

3. Although it's not the sort of information that the U.S. Post Office likes to volunteer, you can refuse any piece of mail. Since direct mailers rarely guarantee return postage, the Post Office will become responsible for disposing of most of the junk mail you refuse.

Unfortunately, until the system changes, that won't save us any money. As taxpayers and stamp buyers, we'll continue to pay. But maybe, just maybe, if the Post Office has to handle a few million tons of refused garbage, it'll finally revise the rate schedules so that those who send, spend—for the disposal and environmental costs associated with their sales pitches. Then maybe the direct mailers will more carefully target their prospects and send their offerings only to those people who are very likely to be responsive.

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