End junk mail
You never call! And marketers, that's the way we like it.
Last month, Congress approved a law extending the federal Do Not Call Registry, so you can still protect your home number from calls from telemarketers. if you have signed up in the past, that registration does not need to be renewed.
Now, a group called ForestEthics has started an online petition calling for a national Do Not Mail Registry to eliminate unwanted circulars, advertisements, coupons, credit card applications and other junk mail from landing in our mailboxes. They've also put together an online tool to get yourself off the lists of the largest mailers, as well as other ways to stop companies that send unsolicited mail.
The effort, supported by celebrities like Adrian Grenier, Darryl Hannah, Alicia Silverstone, Jackson Browne, Aaron Douglas, Ed Begley, Jr. and Paul Hawken, is motivated primarily by awareness of the amount of paper wasted each year on junk mail. But there's a strong consumer protection message as well.
Barring unsolicited credit card applications --- or the cards themselves --- from being sent your way limits the chance that they might be filched from your mailbox or even your trash from some unscrupulous person.
So, stop invasions of your privacy, protect your identity and save a tree --- or many trees, because the group estimates that more than 100 million trees become junk mail annually --- all at the same time.
