While i'm on a roll, i figure it's a good time to do my rant on junk mail.

We don't get a lot of real mail, but we have a tiny mailbox down the block from our townhouse, and we have to go to it every day so that we can empty it out because just about every day it is full of crap. Crap that we do not look at. Crap that goes right into the recycling bin (even though i suspect a lot of it isn't really recyclable). It is absolutely pointless. Think of the environmental waste. Think of the fact that we could have our mailmen and women cover a much wider area if they didn't have to deliver all this garbage. Think of the fact that every two weeks we need to have our recycling people come and pick up our bin full of crap. And god knows how much sorting and processing and whatever else happens after that.

It is the most ridiculous exercise in pointlessness, and it's happening at a time where the Federal Post Office is underfunded, losing business to the internet and commercial delivery services, and constantly updating the cost of its stamps. How about raising the cost of the bulk rate until it either puts the Post Office back in the black and offsets the environmental and recycling costs or it is prohibitive enough that the Post Office can change its business model?

Hey guys, I feel your pain.
I actually went through the process of calling all those coupon envelopes and clipper magazines, even the missing-kid card that enables all the supermarket circulars to get into my box, and I am sorry to report that the respite was short-lived, since they seem to think that maybe there's a new resident who wants all this crap.
Keep the fight going!
Check out the following blog with tips on all sorts of mail tips
http://www.idealbite.com/tiplibrary/archives/mail_order_divorcee_resolutions_week

Cool site, thanks!

See, you're never going to get rid of junk mail, just as you're never going to get rid of spam. Why? Because there's money in advertising. What people need isn't less junk mail, or even an opt-out program, but an opt-in program.

Personally, I'd like to get more menus from the local restaurants. I could even put up with a flyer or two from a local furniture store or housewares retailer. Can you ever have too many towels?

With an opt-in program you could receive advertising that actually interested you while skipping all the stuff you would shred and recycle anyway. I'm really not interested in refinancing my credit card debt with a low intrest/high risk loan, thank you very much. Nor do I need another credit card to compound my problems.

Still it could be worse. At least I'm not getting badly typed advertisements in the mail for Viagra or some guy in Africa who wants my bank account number to transfer large amounts of money out of his country.

By the way, the Vietnamese restaurant near me is awesome.