OPT out of junk mail/phoen books one easy way

Lube

http://www.junkbuster.org.uk/

Junk mail opt-out services

The junk mail opt-out services you can contact via Junk Buster are:

• Royal Mail's Door-to-Door Opt-Out
• Your Choice Preference Scheme for Unaddressed Mail
• Mailing Preference Service

The directories you can contact via Junk Buster are:

• Yellow Pages
• Thomson Local
• BT Telephone Directory

More information about the opt-out services can be found under 'Opt-Out' in the Junk Buster widget. Alternatively, read the Guide section on our website or the most detailed Guide to Stamping Out Junk Mail on the Stop Junk Mail website.

custardy

site is dead

Stop your junk mail! Why? Because in the UK alone, 550,000 tonnes of paper is wasted on unsolicited mail every year. Unimaginable quantities of trees, water and energy are used to bombard householders with advertisements they have never asked for. It's madness.

Junk mail is by far the most polluting form of advertising. Bulk mailers can write as many reports about how 'environmentally responsible' the junk mail industry is, the fact remains that they are plundering natural resources and that they will continue to do so as long as there are trees left. Why else does Royal Mail not advertise to its customers that they can stop up to 156 pieces of unaddressed mail per year by registering with its 'Door-to-Door Opt-Out'? Why else is it not possible to register with the 'Your Choice' scheme online? Why else would the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) refuse to promote the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) on addressed junk mail?

The main junk mail opt-out schemes in the UK are all run by the same people who produce junk mail. They don't want you to opt-out and they will do nothing to make stopping unwanted mail easy and effective. Junk Buster is here to change this. While bulk mailers indulge in greenwash, we tell you what you can actually do to stop your junk mail. And while bulk mailers refuse to advertise the existence of opt-out schemes, we make it easier for you to contact these schemes. We do what bulk mailers should be doing; that is, providing a decent service for all those people who simply have had enough junk mail.

It's ridiculous to say that you care about the environment and respect people's choices on the one hand, and to try to prevent people use opt-out schemes on the other. Yet, this is exactly what the DMA – the representative of bulk mailers in the UK and the organisation behind the MPS and Your Choice – is doing. The Your Choice scheme, for instance, has purely been set up to prevent the introduction of a central junk mail opt-in scheme by the Government. Your Choice has not been designed to actually stop junk mail. The DMA has never organised a marketing campaign to promote the scheme and registering is as customer unfriendly as it could possibly be. To opt out you have to read through four pages of junk mail propaganda and warnings about the consequences of opting out before filling out and returning the actual opt-out form. A return envelope, something which junk mailers never fail to provide when they want a response, is somehow not provided.

To add insult to injury, the lengthy 'Your Choice Opt-Out Pack' does not mention that registering with the scheme is unlikely to stop even a single piece of junk mail. Your Choice is supposed to stop unaddressed junk mail delivered by members of the DMA. That might sound promising, but it's not. The bulk of unaddressed junk mail is delivered by local businesses and local junk mail distribution companies, both of which are hardly ever members of the DMA. The rest of unaddressed junk mail is delivered by Royal Mail, but they already have there own opt-out. As you may have guessed, the two opt-out schemes do not work together, even though Royal Mail is in fact a member of the DMA. Just to discourage you from opting out you have to contact both schemes separately.

We could give many more examples of how bulk mailers refuse to give people an easy way of opting out of unsolicited mail. Did you know, for example, that your registration with Royal Mail's Door-to-Door Opt-Out automatically expires after just two years time and that they will opt you in again without asking? Did you know that bulk mailers can ignore your registration with the MPS by simply sending you junk mail with a generic address (that is, those annoying 'To the Occupier' mailings). We could go on and on and on. But we've said enough about junk mail…

Directories still do need a mention though. Via Junk Buster you can also contact the three main paper directories delivered door-to-door in the UK: the Yellow Pages, Thomson Local and BT Telephone Directory. Although, strictly speaking, junk mail and directories are quite different pieces of waste, they do have a lot in common. In particular, the fact that the companies who produce directories don't advise householders that they can opt out. If they don't, we will.

Most British households nowadays have the internet to find just about any information they need. Yell, Thomson Local and BT seem to be completely oblivious of this by insisting on delivering their books door-to-door throughout the UK. Don't they care that they produce piles of unwanted and unused paper? Is this a rhetorical question?

Another thing the producers of directories have in common with junk mailers is that they are good at setting up green 'talk shops' and writing extensive reports about how 'future-proof' their environmental policies are. What else can this be than greenwash if the same companies don't inform consumers that they don't have to receive directories?

So… it's over you to you now. Via Junk Buster you can contact up to six opt-out schemes in one go and stop up to 249 pieces / 11.3 kilos of junk mail. We've worked hard to create this free and friendly service. Now it's up to you to make a difference.

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Stop your junk mail!

Junk Buster is your one-point-stop for reducing unsolicited mail and paper directories. Via this smart widget you can contact up to three junk mail opt-out schemes as well as the three main paper directories delivered door-to-door in the UK. Registering with these opt-out schemes can reduce unwanted mail by up to 60 per cent. For the average household, that's a reduction of 250 pieces / 11.3 kilos of junk mail per year.
Junk mail opt-out services

The junk mail opt-out services you can contact via Junk Buster are:
Royal Mail's Door-to-Door Opt-Out
Your Choice Preference Scheme for Unaddressed Mail
Mailing Preference Service

The directories you can contact via Junk Buster are:
Yellow Pages
Thomson Local
BT Telephone Directory

More information about the opt-out services can be found under 'Opt-Out' in the Junk Buster widget. Alternatively, read the Guide section on our website or the most detailed Guide to Stamping Out Junk Mail on the Stop Junk Mail website.

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Important notice!

In the last couple of weeks many thousands of people have used Junk Buster to contact opt-out services. The Mailing Preference Service has responded to this by refusing to send a registration form to people who request one via e-mail (which includes Junk Buster). If you contact the MPS via Junk Buster you are likely to receive an e-mail from the MPS stating that the measure has been taken to 'save paper', which is a rather an ironic thing to say for an organisation run by junk mailers! Nevertheless, we do recommend that you follow the advice given in the e-mail and sign up to the MPS via its website.

Royal Mail also appears to have changed its opt-out process. If you contact the Door-to-Door Opt-Out via Junk Buster you will now receive an e-mail with warnings about the disastrous consequences of no longer receiving unsolicited leaflets from the postman, with an opt-out confirmation form attached. If you receive the form with the e-mail you can opt out by sending the completed form to the Door-to-Door Opt-Out freepost address. If you do not get the form via e-mail you will get it sent to you in the post.

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You're almost there…

Registering with the three junk mail opt-out schemes will stop about 60 per cent of unsolicited mail. Although that's quite a reduction, you'll still have to dispose of some 100 pieces of junk mail per year. To really get rid of junk mail there are a number of other things we recommend you do. We'll mention the two most important ones here. For a full guide, please refer to our Stop Junk Mail Guide.
Get a 'No Junk Mail' sign. There's no other way to stop all those leaflets and other unaddressed items that are not delivered by Royal Mail. You might still get the odd take-away menu, but you'll be surprised how many leafleters respect a polite request not to push junk through your letter box. You can get a sticker to stop leaflets and/or free newspapers from our 'No Junk' Shop.

Opt out of being on the edited electoral register. If you are not yet opted out of being on the edited version of the electoral register, contact your local election office and ask them to take your details off this list. The edited version of the electoral roll can be bought by any person and may be used for any purpose. As you would expect, bulk mailers use the register to create junk mail list. Having your name and address on it is asking for junk mail; you might as well contact bulk mailers to ask them if they could please send you heaps of junk mail.

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Donate

Junk Buster is the brainchild of Stop Junk Mail, a not-for-profit campaign group giving free and independent advice on reducing unsolicited mail. You can use the application free of charge and you don't need to feel guilty about this. Reducing junk mail should be easy and free; after all, you never asked for the stuff! However, if Junk Buster has helped you reducing junk mail and if you're fortunate enough to be able to spare a couple pounds, any donations towards the project are gratefully received.

tori.k

I join up with the MPS about 3 years ago, i still get loads of junk mail stick a no junk mail sign on your door that is supposed to stop the door to door leaflets (not that it will totally)

Ken68

The Junk Mail Notice needs to be near the gate, and when I did the Opt Out for Royal Mail, my post was delayed. Confirmed by BIL postman.

oldMcDonald

tori.k wrote: »

I join up with the MPS about 3 years ago, i still get loads of junk mail stick a no junk mail sign on your door that is supposed to stop the door to door leaflets (not that it will totally)

Has anyone managed to stop junk mail through MPS? I've twice given them my details (3 & 1 years ago), but I still get the same amount come through.

I have a no menus / leaflets / junk mail sticker but still get take-away menus through the door every Friday! Eight each Friday on average!

custardy

oldMcDonald wrote: »

Has anyone managed to stop junk mail through MPS? I've twice given them my details (3 & 1 years ago), but I still get the same amount come through.

I have a no menus / leaflets / junk mail sticker but still get take-away menus through the door every Friday! Eight each Friday on average!

how many takeaway places do you think are part of MPS?
they are businesses sending out items locally

oldMcDonald

custardy wrote: »

how many takeaway places do you think are part of MPS?
they are businesses sending out items locally

I did word that badly!

I meant that the sticker is ignored by the people who deliver the take away menus

The MPS was an entirely seperate moan! I get junk mail almost daily - it is my own fault, I used to enter loads of competions and apply for freebies, obviously getting on every mailing list going! We also seem to get so much unaddressed junk delivered by the postman - at least once a week and often more we get leaflets from Sky and Virgin, Dominos Etc. pushed through the door with the mail. Is there any way to ask that the postie doesn't push these leaflets through our letterbox Custardy? I asked the postie but he just said he has to deliver them and has no choice.

P__G

Thanks for a great post!

Ken68

oldMcDonald wrote: »

I did word that badly!

I meant that the sticker is ignored by the people who deliver the take away menus

The MPS was an entirely seperate moan! I get junk mail almost daily - it is my own fault, I used to enter loads of competions and apply for freebies, obviously getting on every mailing list going! We also seem to get so much unaddressed junk delivered by the postman - at least once a week and often more we get leaflets from Sky and Virgin, Dominos Etc. pushed through the door with the mail. Is there any way to ask that the postie doesn't push these leaflets through our letterbox Custardy? I asked the postie but he just said he has to deliver them and has no choice.

Your address is flagged at the sorting office, but if everyone asked for no Royal Mail junk, it would make the posties job difficult.
I tear them up and put into a post box in town.

custardy

oldMcDonald wrote: »

I did word that badly!

I meant that the sticker is ignored by the people who deliver the take away menus

The MPS was an entirely seperate moan! I get junk mail almost daily - it is my own fault, I used to enter loads of competions and apply for freebies, obviously getting on every mailing list going! We also seem to get so much unaddressed junk delivered by the postman - at least once a week and often more we get leaflets from Sky and Virgin, Dominos Etc. pushed through the door with the mail. Is there any way to ask that the postie doesn't push these leaflets through our letterbox Custardy? I asked the postie but he just said he has to deliver them and has no choice.

you would need to officially opt out
a postie needs to explain any excess D2D items,as these are returned to the D2D office in Perth(i think the whole UK uses this one)
if they took them out and binned them then they could/would be sacked
so saying not to put them through means the postie could be sacked
i know it sounds extreme but that is the enviroment in RM now

custardy

Ken68 wrote: »

Your address is flagged at the sorting office, but if everyone asked for no Royal Mail junk, it would make the posties job difficult.
I tear them up and put into a post box in town.

why? seriously why?
i doesnt affect management and just becomes a pain for those emptying/sorting the box collections