RETURN TO WASTER Junk Mail Stamps at Etsy

39 by LiveOAK Staff on May 21, 2008

The "RETURN TO WASTER" Stamps are available from this Etsy Seller.

It takes 100 Million (100,000,000) trees to create the junk mail that is sent out in one year. It takes 28 billion gallons of water to make this junk mail and the average person wastes 70 hours a year dealing with junk mail…. so in other words… JUNK MAIL IS BAD. There are several services available to help you reduce the amount of junk mail you receive. For example, you can register with the Direct Marketing Associations “do-not-mail list” and be careful where you fill out your name and address. Even if you follow all the steps you will most likely still receive some (hopefully less) junk mail, so what do you do with it? Well recycle it is the obvious answer, but I found this “Return To Waster” stamp idea at the ToyBox that I thought was interesting. In the post they advocate sending it back to the sender with the following message stamped on it…

“RETURN TO WASTER, You are contributing to the 100 million trees wasted in creating junk mail”.

A great local stamp shop here in NH run by a woman named Karen sells them (get them from her on Etsy). They are a very small business but have an online store and they are going to sell the stamps at a discounted price so you will be able to buy one of your own for $11. That includes the 4" x 1" hand made wooden rubber stamp and a red ink pad. If you already have your own ink pad you can buy just the stamp for $7!

Here is what the stamp says:

I did some research at the Post Office and found that for Bulk Mail (the things addressed to "RESIDENT") if you stamp it and return it the Post Office just ends up recycling it, unless the marketer paid a little extra for a forwarding or return service which they do to make sure their lists are accurate and up to date. First class mail which a lot of credit card applications and other letters use will be returned to the sender. I still think this is a great idea and I encourage everyone to sign up for the do-not-mail lists and then stamp and return everything that still slips through.

Here are some links to info on reducing your Junk mail:

Ecocycle.org - Stop the Junk Mail Monster
PrivacyRights.org - Reducing Junk Mail
41Pounds.org

Category: DIY, Shopping+Services | Tags: junk mail, reduce

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http://www.1millionletters.com/ Brian

Sold out on Etsy as of 5/21/08.
admin

She’s making more. Just send her a message through Etsy or her website and let her know you want one. I check with her tomorrow to make sure she will restock the Etsy store.
Whatever

Won’t this just cause the post office to burn tons of extra fuel hauling this junk back?
admin

Yes it will. If you read the original post you’ll see that we acknowledge this, but the point is not to lower your carbon footprint by sending the mail back, it is to make a statement, raise awareness and hopefully change the behavior of the marketing companies from sending so much wasteful unsolicited mail, which overtime will be a huge impact for the environment.
fungis

The problem is not “junk mail” The problem is the source of fiber used to make paper. It used to be that Hemp was a major resource that was used to make paper. If we were to return to this much better source for paper we would stop killing trees and be creating oxygen and taking carbon out of our atmosphere. I work in a printing shop and as much as I hate to think about how many trees die, one its my job and it puts food on my families table as well as many others in the world and two its not my fault that my government is retarded and wont allow cultivation of a benign plant which has many, many, many uses. be green grow green
http://dailymitzvah.blogspot.com/ Jen

Thanks for posting — this is really intriguing. (Love the blog!)
http://earthyfinds.blogspot.com Hyla Waldron

Thank you! I am definitely picking one of these up next pay day! Great idea!

Hyla
Uncle B

Frugal Greener that I am, I shred every damn piece of junkmail I get and compost it for my garden. I now have a lot of beautiful, free, topsoil that produces all kinds of food for me and mine! I am not guilty of soliciting junkmail for this purpose, but my vengeful side has considered it, just in passing mind you! My buddy starts all his wood fires with junkmail, so it does have value to practical folk!
ADMIN

I found this post over at “The Earth is Not a Trash Can” explaining that credit card companies check your credit your credit report before sending you credit card offers. The post explains how to contact the credit reporting agencies to make sure when credit card companies pre-screen you for offers, they see a “No Thank You” for solicitations on your report…

http://planettrash.wordpress.com/2008/02/14/how-to-stop-credit-card-solicitations/
noIMPACT

This is a great idea! Unfortunately business can’t be expected to do things out of goodness, they need economic stimuli. By sending junk mail back (particularly the 1st class stuff like the credit card apps that they get charged for) hopefully we can make it costly for them to snail mail spam us and then they might stop.
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Mark Jones

The USPS automatically disposes of all “refused” or “return to sender” mail. This is known as “Standard Mail”.
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http://yahoo the mailman

Yeah its nice but junkmail just gets thrown out and recycled. ONLY 1st class mail is actually returned to sender. That and peiodicals but most people dont refuse their magazines. In fact I get bulk mail quite frequently from customers that have written return to sender on them. I try to explain that if they want it to stop they need to contact the people sending the stuff directly. Yeah it sucks but that’s the way it is. What most people don’t get is that the post office only delivers the mail. WE DON’T GENERATE THIS STUFF ! ! ! WE JUST DELIVER IT ! It’s not our fault we are just doing the job we are paid to do. Get the mail from point A to point B.
Final Six

In comment to the mailman, I have often wondered to myself that if enough of this crap gets refused, the post office and couriers will tire of the additional, unnecessary workload and join the fight against these capitalist earth killer marketing companies.
Ted

How much water is used in the ink? How many trees for the stamper?

Or is it ok because someoen else is making money of our precious resources other than an evil corporate conglomerate?

Just call and write. You can also use the forms from the post office and specify what is ‘sexually explicit’ materials. Even a gardening advert can be stopped this way.
coppertop

The mailman doesn’t get tired of hauling this stuff…it’s job security…more mail = more money.
kristen

um.. it’d probably be best that you took this down considering that the item doesn’t exist anymore. when you go to the links you provided, it tells us that the item no longer exists. please update your site!
http://greenupgrader.com Mike

When I get credit card offers in the mail, I take the postage paid envelope inside and mail some of my junk mail back to them. I usually take the shredded paper out of the office trash can or I’ll take local coupns and mail to them. I always include a note that says “Thank you for sending me your unsolicated junk mail. Allow me to return the favor by sending some of mine.” OR…. I will take the pre paid envelope and tape it to a box filled with rocks. They have to take it at the post office and deliever it. And guess who pays the postage? THEY DO! Be sure to include a little thank you note! It’s my little way of sticking it to the man!
http://yahoo catsuny

First off ,these companies are invading our rights and privacy. SEC. we shouldnt have to pay anyone to have our names removed from something we didnt ask for and for them to send ,SUDDENLY THEY CAN JUST MAIL YOU WHAT EVER AND WE HAVE TO PAY SOMEONE TO MAKE THEM STOP …BULL..THESE COMPANIES MUST HAVE A LOT OF MONEY TO BE CONSTSANTLY MAILING ,THEY SHOULD BE FINED FROM THE START ..ITS LIKE THE PHONE WE PAY FOR THIS BECAUSE ITS A NEED AND THEY GET TO GET YOUR NUMBER CALL YOU AND CALL YOU…WHY IS EVERYTHING TWISTED BACKWARDS AND THE CONSUMER PAYS FOR IT ALL.WHERE IS OUR RIGHTS BEING PROTECTED WE PAY FOR AN UNLISTED PHONE NUMBER …BUT THATS NOT GOOD ENOUGH…I DO NOT WANT THERE CRAPPY MAIL ADVERTISEMENTS ETC…IT A TERRIBLE WASTE HOW CAN WE CONTINUE TO WASTE
THEY SHOULDNT HAVE THE RIGHT TO MAIL TO A INDIVIDUALS ‘
HOMES IF THE CONSUMER SIGNED UP FOR THEM THEN FINE ,THAT DOESNT GIVE THE RIGHT TO PUSH YOUR NAME AN ADDRESS OUT THERE.. NOTHING BUT BULL CRAP IT HAS TO STOP.
i have at time sent them back if they sent an envelope,some junk mail and if possible verthing they gave me i give back to them ….
i tell them stick this where the sun doesnt shine and since there company is doing so well they can afford to pay someone to open the junk mail returned to them…
Brucee

To all of you wonderful and creative respondents, especially those that saw right through what a self-aggrandizing idea this is, thank you. Now if you all could make me a rubber stamp that says “Green-washed Warning: Not really ‘green’” I’d buy it.

(I hope I don’t get junk emails from putting my email address in here.)
Phrank

Good job Brucee, glad to see that someone else is not a sheeple and buying into all this “green” hype.

Lets see some proof about the 100 million trees / year and the amount of water. I call BS on those numbers and anyone with a quick bit of research would know that they are nothing but made up crap to push a “green friendly” product.

Just another fraud trying to profit off the stupid green/global warming hype crap.
Tim

I happen to be one of the owners of MyJunkTree and as a new company I search the web to see if we are getting any visibility out there and I post n relevant Blogs.

We launched the company because we were tired of all the junk mail we were receiving and we personally did not want to bounce all over the web to contact all the different companies to stop it all. First and foremost we wanted to let people choose what they wanted to let come to their home knowing that some people really do like some of the coupons and catalogs. So our clients choose what they want stopped.

We also had to provide a service that is different than the other services out there, so here is what we offer:

1. We have a database of over 1300 catalogs that you can choose to stop.
2. We have over a 5700 charities/Non-Profits that you can stop solicitations from.
3. Stop the delivery of the national phone directories.
4. Stop the delivery of the weekly coupons.
5. Stop the general credit card offers as well as the ones from your own major bank.
6. Stop the miscellaneous junk mail from the data brokers.
7. You can register on the National Do Not Call Registry from the website.
8. You can order your no strings attached free annual credit report right from the website.
9. We plant trees with every new membership.

And, yes we are a paid service and yes you can do everything that we do for free, if you want to do all the research and spend the time contacting the companies yourself it can easily be done. We have just done all of the legwork for our clients and feel there is value in the service we provide. So check out MyJunkTree and make difference in your mailbox.
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colin

Where do I find this rubber stamp ” return to waster ” ? I could not find it on the website Etsy
http://greenupgrader.com Matt

Apparently she’s not selling them anymore, I’ll see if I can find them somewhere else and update the post.
Nicole

What really irks me is that since my husband and I officially filed a business license for our (very) small record label, we get literally 20 pieces of mail a week. Mainly its from credit card companies, health insurance conglomerates or Office Depot catalogs. Gee, like how the state SELLS your information to these entities once you register. I would love to dump it all on the lawn of these marketing CEO’s or whoever heads the antiquated “direct mail” campaigns. Well, I take mental note and remember not to support their companies. So- they have lost my business for being wasteful.
steven snyder

I have found that the best way to return junk mail is to use the prepaid postage envelope in most junk mail offers. I write “no” on the offer and place it and everything in the mailer including the envelope it arrived in inside the prepaid return envelope. That way the junk mailer is actually paying to get their junk mail returned to them. Another thing to do is when you receive a bill for something that also has other offers in the envelope, put those offers in the envelope when you mail your payment in.
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Что то Автор почти совсем перестал писать темы и даже админить блог? Может что случилось?
http://www.cash-advance--loan.org Palmer Sampley

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http://seth2monroe.zoomshare.com/2.shtml Wright

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