Reduce Junk Mail

Trouble with junk mail? Fix it now!

In 1999 the U.S. generated 5,560,000 tons of third class mail (the primary class for unsolicited mail); of this total, 4,330,000 tons (78 percent) were disposed. That represents not only a lot of wasted paper, but also a lot of wasted time handling all that paper.

Unsolicited Mail—"junk mail"— in the workplace is a profit drain because of the time required to sort through the mail to see what is actually "junk" and what is not.

Remove Your Business From Two Major Mailing List Databases
1. Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) maintains the largest company database worldwide, collecting information on more than 70 million business establishments from 217 countries.

A business may have its information removed from business marketing lists published by D&B. To have your business delisted, call D&B’s customer service center at 1-800-333-0505 or send an e-mail to custserv@dnb.com.

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2. InfoUSA maintains information on more than 12 million businesses in the U.S. To remove your business from their lists, fax a letter to (402) 331-0176. The letter should say on the top: "Attention—Business Update Department." The letter should include the complete business name, address, and phone number; the name and title of the person requesting the deletion; and that person's signature. You can also send this letter by regular mail to Info USA, P.O. Box 27347, Omaha, NE, 68127.

Remove Your Business from Specific Company Mailing Lists
Not every company uses the mailing list databases maintained by Dun & Bradstreet and InfoUSA. There are two basic ways to remove your business from specific company mailing lists.

1. Collective—Tell the mail handler in your business to contact individual, persistent mail solicitors. Have each person in your business redirect all unwanted mail to that person. The designated “junk mail watchdog” can then compile a list of the individuals receiving unsolicited mail from specific companies and contact the most persistent companies to request that they remove the individual names from their mailing lists.

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2. Individual—Encourage all your employees to contact persistent direct marketers and request they be removed from their mailing lists. It is most effective if the highest level of management possible encourages the employees to take this action.

Use this preprinted postcard to make it easier for individual employees to request mailing list deletions:This page is designed to be printed onto cardstock and cut into four postcards. Be sure to use cardstock, not regular paper, as U.S. Postal Service standards require a minimum thickness of .007" for postcards, which translates to paper with a basis weight of at least 50 lbs.

When sending a mailing list deletion request card, address it to the company that sent the unwanted mail piece (using their return address), and write "Attn: Direct Marketing Dept." under the address. Be sure to apply postage to the card; postcard rates can be found on the U.S. Postal Service site.

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What if a Company Continues to Send Unwanted Mail to My Business?
Often times, it takes a few months before your request to have a company remove your business from their mailing list becomes effective. Allowing for a reasonable delay, if you have asked a specific company at least twice to remove your business from its mailing list but it continues to send you unwanted mail, you can report the persistent offender to the National Waste Prevention Coalition’s "Business Junk Mail Complaint Bureau." If the bureau receives several complaints about a particular company, it will notify that company.

Contact:
Tom Watson, Coordinator
National Waste Prevention Coalition
c/o King County Solid Waste Division
201 South Jackson St., #701
Seattle, Washington, 98104-3855
Phone: (206) 296-4481
tom.watson@metrokc.gov.

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Remove Former Employees From Mailing Lists for Your Business
The EcoLogical Mail Coalition offers a free service for businesses to remove former employees from direct marketer's lists. View a quick tour and sign up online at www.ecologicalmail.org.

For additional information please call Michael Nelson, Director of Membership at 1-800-620-3975 ext. 3.

Keep Your Business From Being Added to Mailing Lists in the First Place

• Place some standard language on purchase orders, such as, "In the interests of reducing waste, please do not share this name or address with other mailers, through mail list sales or trades."
• Include a message such as, "Please do not share this name or address with other companies" on registration forms for conferences, events, trainings, etc., and on subscription order forms.
• Ask your receptionist to screen callers who ask for your company's address, zip code, name of the senior buyer, etc. If they just want to add your business to a mailing list tell them no thanks!

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Unsolicited Mail, Telemarketing and Email: Where to Go to “Just Say No”
Go here: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt063.shtm

Information from: California Integrated Waste Management Board, California Business Resource Efficiency & Waste Reduction