Housatonic Home Magazine
on the homefront
March 2003
mail call
By bernadette rossetti-shustak
Have you noticed how much useless paper comes through your mailbox each day? In this day of computers and Internet access you would think the amount of hard copy coming into our homes would have subsided some.
First, there are the advertisements that come with bills. It’s bad enough that you are getting a bill and an itemized list of how much you’ve gone over your limit, but companies seem to have to insert extra flyers encouraging you to buy even more stuff. Many vendors include an envelope to mail back your payment. This is a nice courtesy, but if you pay your bills on line, it’s just another unnecessary piece of paper for you.
Then there is the unsolicited mail you receive. Not only did you not ask for this mail, but it also usually includes an envelope or a postcard to mail back in case you do want the insurance, credit card, or bread slicer the company is trying to hawk.
Magazines also hold some unwanted and unneeded paper. Many not only come wrapped in plastic or a paper sleeve, but then there are all those extra inserts and postcards stuck in between the pages.
I like magazines. Maybe I like them a little too much. At last count, I had nine different subscriptions coming into the house. I think magazines are informative and fun to read. But those card-stock postcards sticking out are really annoying. I find myself thumbing through a magazine the first time just to pull out all the “extras.” This past weekend I received a copy of Ladies Home Journal, it has 19 postcards protruding from between its pages, while, keeping true to their name, a copy of Real Simple only had five.
A lot of these postcards mirror ads already in the magazine. Maybe advertisers think if they make it easier for people to just rip out a card, fill it in, and mail it, they’ll get more sales. But I think if you really want their product, you’ll take the time to cut out a coupon already in the main add, fill it out, stuff it in an envelope and slap on your own stamp (or even just go on line and order the item).
My son, Anthony, has been getting a lot of mail lately. He’s a senior in high school and is in the process of applying to colleges. Everyday unsolicited college brochures show up in our mailbox. Schools that don’t even have curriculums in what he wants to major in are sending him multiple packets of information every week. I guess they haven’t figured it out yet. If he hasn’t answered their mail, he’s not coming. Stop sending the brochures!
Not long ago I was just so overwhelmed with the amount of unwanted paper that was coming into our home, that I placed an empty copier paper box in the kitchen and ordered all unwanted and unneeded parts of anyone’s mail to be placed into the box. In less than a week the box was full. It weighed almost 25 lbs. If you do the math, that’s approximately 100 lbs. of paper a month, or nearly 1,200 lbs. a year. That’s a lot of unwanted, unneeded, and wasted paper.
I really haven’t figures out a way to reduce this staggering amount of paper from entering my home. And I’m not really sure what I should do with all this paper I’m collecting. My town recycles newspapers, but not junk mail. I don’t have a fireplace or wood-burning stove, and even if I did, I’m not sure it’s a safe idea to burn all that paper with its assorted inks.
The only idea I’ve come up with is to take all that mail as it comes in, stuff it back in the return envelopes the senders have supplied, and mail it back to them.
(bernadette rossetti-shustak is a freelance writer and editor living in New YorkState. She would never really mail unwanted mail back to its originator.)