Each person gets an average one tree’s worth of junk mail each year, and lots of it can’t be recycled, due to glitter and foil (you can recycle envelopes with plastic windows, they get sorted in the machine).
The best way to avoid junk mail is to not surveys or do international lotteries. A good way to find culprits is to use a false name. If your name is John Smith, enter Mr John A Smith for one form, Mr John B Smith for another and so on. If bombarded with junk mail, you know who sold your name on.
Citizens Advice Bureau has a good post on how to prevent most types of junk mail including unaddressed mail from the Post Office (this also helps to stop littered rubber bands, which harm wildlife), how to get your details taken off the public electoral register (where your name can be sold on) and how to contact marketing preference agencies, to remove your name from their lists.
The Bereavement Register and Baby Mailing Preference service can also remove names (good to avoid upset, after recent deaths in the family).
campaign to stop scam mail
One campaigner wants posties to be able to sound the alert if they think vulnerable people are being targeted with scam mail, as often they are the only ones aware. The campaign also wants notices in banks (to stop people taking out their life savings) and new laws of power of attorney, so concerned relatives would need to be informed, so vulnerable people could not get scammed without them being informed beforehand.
