Attention Everyone who Has Followed This Thread

> Just came across this site tonight . . . it seems they're doing what I've
> been doing on a scattershot basis for years to fight junk ads, i.e.,
> sending them right on back to the sender thanks to their handy-dandy
> postpaid reply envelopes. I must've sent at least ten tons of junk back to
> the Scientology cult for starters.

> Don't get mad -- get payback!

Those pre-paid envelopes are called "business reply mail." The sender agrees to pay for them whether they contain legitimate business leads or not (yes those are usually marketers trying to earn a living just as you are.) I can't find it but I remember reading that exceptions are made when the person sending back the piece is obviously being malicious - such as sending in lead weights and/or bricks.

The reason postal employees are instructed not to refer to it as "junk" mail is because someone paid the Postal Service to deliver it. To the sender, it is potential business, not junk. Certainly as business owners, you can relate to that. Yes, you can get fired for not delivering it. To not hold its employees accountable would seriously compromise the integrity of the Postal Service. If you were an advertiser who discovered that someone had trashed your ads before they ever reached your potential customer, you would certainly expect your chosen delivery agent to take appropriate action and not just say, "oh well."

The post office does not deliver mail with no postage on it. If it cannot be returned to the sender for postage, it goes to the "dead letter office." If there is no way to get it back to you and it does not appear to be of value, they destroy it. (No one else has that authority.) Most large businesses have a standing policy of refusing short-paid / postage due mail, so sending it with a penny stamp does not work, either. You are wasting everyone's time and resources, including yours.

All that being said, there is a lot of "bulk business mail" that is put into the mail stream and is just plain not deliverable because of a bad address or whatever. It does NOT wind up in landfills. It is sold to recyclers and kept out of landfills. The Postal Service has won awards for the efforts and leadership rolls it has taken to promote and participate in recycling. Believe it or not, this sort of sound business practice is what helps keep postal rates and service the best in the world.

Do what they do: recycle all the stuff you get that you don't want. It takes the least amount of time and effort and is by far the most efficient action you can take.

The Postal Service ain't a perfect place to work - no place is. I left because I could, not because I had to. But it most definitely does not deserve the bashing it takes. Sending back stuff the way that has been described in this thread costs everybody and does somewhere between little and nothing to get the message to the marketer that you want off his list.