Agggghhhhh Phone Books!!!!!

So I opened up the door today and found a phone book sitting on the doorstep. Agggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!  These things frustrate me and quite honestly, I hadn't thought about them until this monring.  But now, here I am, a proud new owner and about to head it down to the basement.

If you're like me, you don't use telephone books anymore as you pretty much look everything up online. Now I'm not saying that there is no use for these things as some folks are bound to remain old school in this department, and some are not online, but it should be easy to opt out of these things.  Well, as i found out, it is and it isn't.

I called the phone book company and told them my dilemma and while they were happy to take my info, they couldn't promise that the books would stop coming. Interesting side note here: Why is it my problem to stop them and not theirs?

Anyhoo, I found a great online resource at the Huffington Post on how to deal with phone books. Here's the abridged version.

1. Call the number on the front of the phone book (each is different usually) and tell them you want out.
2. Sign this petition to make it possible to opt out of phone books altogether (this is good for the US, UK, Australia and Canada).
3. Write a letter to the Yellow Pages Association and tell them what you think.
4. Make sure to either use the books you do get to insulate your house, or at least recycle them when you are through.

There ya go.  Good luck and let me know if you have success!

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United Mileage Plus Credit Card Opt Out

Years ago i flew United and get about 5-6 credit card offers a year. It's really quite frustrating. I've tried stopping these but to no avail, but now i have hopefully gotten somewhere.

I called the number for the response line (866.652.3284) and waited without pushing any buttons until an operator came on. I actually got a pretty nice woman who was very helpful and I explained that I wasn't going to get their card so they were losing money and causing harm to the environment at the same time. She told me that I needed to give her the Invitation Number listed in blue at the bottom of the invoice and then read my addy off to me to make sure I was the right recipient. She then put me on the do not send list and gave me her name to check back in a few months if I was still having trouble.

Very cool. We'll see if it works.

dave

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Greendimes Again

Thought this was worthy of a post.

After Might I Add added that she was hesitant to sign up for Greendimes as she doesn't like to give out her credit card on the internet, I emailed them to ask if this was absolutely necessary. Just got a comment from Sanjiv over there that they have removed that requirement, making it still easier to get rid of your junk mail. Very cool and i'm impressed with not only their responsiveness, but with their ability to understand a legitimate concern about credit card safety and address it so effectively.

Rock on Greendimes!

Dave

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Greendimes Will Pay You $1 To Stop Your Junk Mail

Greendimes has announced that they will pay the next 5 million people who sign up $1 each to stop their junk mail for a year.

Now how can you beat that?

What are you waiting for?

Dave

5/4/08 Update

After hearing some feedback, I wanted to post an update.  While Greendimes is giving everyone who signs up $1 right now, it is for the manual removal sign up, ie, they walk you through what to do but you do it yourself. If you want them to do it for you, there is the usual $20 fee and they'll plant 5 trees as well.  I believe the manual sign up doesn't plant trees but you can have them do so for a dollar or two more. While one friend did question this as a bait and switch tactic, i pointed out that they are willing to walk you through getting rid of your mail and pay you $1 for it at the same time so it's actually quite on the level. I just think that most folks, when they see what is involved with maintaining it yourself, will agree that $20 is worth the time and effort they will save you. Bottom line- it really chaps my hide that we need to spend a ton of time, or any money to get rid of junk mail to begin with, but it's a consumer based society, so it is what it is. At least they've set up one stop shopping to help.

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Junk Your Junk Mail

Generally speaking the greatest waste to come out of any house is in the form of paper and the largest contributor to that number is junk mail.

Junk mail is generally a pain as most of us don't want it, and a huge amount of it doesn't even get recycled. In addition, think of the resources, fossil fuel, and time that are wasted as a result. A lot of people look at what I've been up to and after I've tackled the sanity question, they always ask what i do with all the junk mail and are shocked to find that we hardly get any.

I've been working on this for a while and at this point, we sometimes don't get any mail, and at the very least, rarely get any junk mail at all. I can't even remember the last time we got a catalog - and when you think about the fact that the average american gets around 88 a year, that's a major undertaking.

So here, in simple bullet points, is how I went about stopping the junk, and then below that are some other alternatives.

• For starters, check out Greendimes.com. Greendimes costs $20 a year, but for that price they automatically remove you from several lists, plant 5 trees, and continually monitor your account. I did this thinking the trees alone made it worth it, but the junk mail actually fell off from just that pretty quickly. In addition, when stuff does get through, you just go on the site, plug in the info, and they do the rest. I've heard pluses and minuses about them, but I'm a believer.
• Next was the mail from orgs that we give money to. I thought about this for a while and what i do now is call/email them and tell them that for reasons involving saving resources, I have decided to no longer give money to orgs that send me paper solicitations, but will gladly consider them if they send me email solicitations and give them my email addy. In every situation this has proven to be effective so far, and I usually get an email of thanks back.
• As for bills, I pretty much pay online and do auto withdrawal so after all is said and done, not much left. We do occasionally get a Penny Saver ad or something similar, but a call to the number in the editorial section takes care of that and eventually they stop showing up.

Now some people will balk at paying to not have something you haven't asked for not be sent to you in the first place, and I can't really blame you. It's wrong and the problem should be theirs, not yours. That said, it's a question of time versus money. So if you want to go about it on your own, here are some tips.

• Head over to The Direct Marketing Association and for $1 (I think that's a legal requirement) they'll get you off a whole mess of lists. Your request will be active for 5 years at which time you'll need to renew.
• Catalog Choice is a free service that will help get rid of unwanted catalogs for ya.
• Optout will put an end to most unsolicited credit card and insurance offers.
• If stuff continues to come in, rather than recycling it right off the bat, call the 800 number and asked to be placed on their "do not mail" list. Legally they have to and most will oblige.
• Apparently the USPS sometimes sells forwarded address lists to solicitors, so if you are moving, mark your forward preference as temporary for six months rather than permanent. As a result, your addy won't be sold and you won't bring all that junk mail to your new house.
• Any time you fill out a warranty card or subscription, you are giving advertisers the right to buy that information. To keep this from happening, write "Do Not Rent, Sell, or Trade My Personal Information, Name or Address" on the bottom of the card in big block letters.
• You can also check out 41 lbs which gets it's name from the average amount of junk mail an adult receives in a year.

Bottom line is don't give up. Some things will stop right away, and some will take up to two months as that's how far ahead they plan their mailings, but eventually you'll see a big difference. I kind of treat it like a game and it actually keeps it fun in a weird way.

Good luck.

Dave

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Day 7 A Few Answers

I have gotten several questions about things that people have emailed me so here are a few things I probably need to expound upon a bit.

I am not insane
I think that one's pretty self explanatory but i thought I'd put it out there. The ironic thing is that now that this is becoming "normal" for me, I'm beginning to realize even more so than before that what I was doing before was insane. By societal standards of what is expected of us all, I am a bit odd, but that said, if you take out the fact that we are used to doing so, the thought of taking your trash, putting it in a bin where some guy you don't know comes and picks it up and takes it to be dumped in some hole in the ground, is pretty insane if you think about it (not to mention that it's a horrid run on sentence).

Why My garbage Totals Don't Seem To Be Evidence of Much Food (yet)
Good one. For starters I eat atrociously and rarely have three meals a day as I forget a lot. That said, I tend to eat stuff that is not pre-made more than often so my guess is over time, we'll see ebbs and flows in this. For instance for dinner tonight the kids and I had bean burritos so at some point when we work our way through them, there will be packaging from the tortillas and cheese (the beans were bulk bought with a bag we re-use) that end up downstairs.

I Don't Have All or even Most of the Answers
My favorite emails that I've received have been from folks who think that I am doing this because I know what i am doing. While I probably spend more time on this than most people do (come on, you all blog about your garbage right?)I'm actually doing this because I don't know a lot about it - or at least as much as I''d like to. So for that reason, I will definitely have moments where I stumble and fall, but hopefully not down the stairs.

On a non-answer note, I had one of those "duh-huh" moments today as I was looking through the fridge trying to figure out what I had used last night for dinner. Now i have a sharpie near the fridge and anytime I take something from ANYTHING my initials go on top so it doesn't get tossed/recycled. I'm sort of shocked I didn't think of this before.

I spent some time in line at the grocery store today and am absolutely shocked at the waste that goes into all the packaging. I know this sounds weird but grab yourself a cup of Joe and head to your local "supermarket" and just spend ten minutes watching what people buy. It's a huge eye opener.

As far as all my mail that I had to recycle, for starters, that's over two weeks worth. Greendimes has severly diminished what I get, and the rest is split between things I need to get (statements etc) and solicitation from charities, which I understand but hate. So what Ive started doing is calling them up and asking for a supervisor. Then I kindly explain that I will no longer accept paper mailing from them and that furthermore, I will not donate to any cause that sens me paper mailing, but will be glad to have them contact me via email, which I give to them. They seem to be responsive so far, but we'll see what becomes of it.

Dave

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What Makes Up your Trash

I found a pretty cool article online at the Popular Mechanics website of all places that shows the average house and where most of your trash comes from. Interesting that paper is the highest problem they list. I need to read the article more in depth to see where they get their numbers from but I wouldn't be surprised if mail is the biggest problem. I've used Greendimes for a while now and they ahve helped to eliminate our junk mail to next to nothing. Check them out.

dave

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