With just a few seconds of effort, anyone can easily shrink their impact on the environment by telling Canada Post to stop delivering junk mail—but only 2% of Canadian homes have done it.
Canada Post says it’s because people want to get flyers and ads delivered at their door. Vancouver’s Beth Ringdahl begs to differ.
Ringdahl’s website, reddotcampaign.ca, spells out a simple two-step process to block junk mail: It’s as easy as filling out a downloaded form and leaving a note on your mailbox.
For more than a decade, Canada Post has been quietly acknowledging such requests, halting junk mail deliveries and marking a homeowner’s internal file with a red dot—hence the name of Ringdahl’s campaign.
The website’s only been up for a couple of weeks, but word is spreading fast.
Ringdahl says the letter has been downloaded more than 2,300 times, her Facebook group has swelled to more than 850 members and grateful visitors are e-mailing friends about the site.
“[The campaign] is like a friendly reminder saying, ‘Hey guys, here’s something you can do that will take away some clutter and save some trees.’ ”
Canada Post spokeswoman Lillian Au says Ringdahl’s campaign is unnecessary because Canadians have known for years about the opt-out option.
“It has been in place since 1997, so we feel that we’ve done a good job and people know that they have that right,” Au says.
Au acknowledged that unaddressed advertising mail is one of Canada Post’s fastest growing revenue streams—it brought in $339 million in 2006, up 14.4% from 2005—and helps keep costs down for consumers, while allowing small businesses to advertise in an affordable way.
But Au also confirmed Ringdahl’s theory that marketers would likely end up printing fewer flyers if there were fewer homes that received the junk mail.
“We make regular updates to our mailers, who can adjust the amount of material being printed so they don’t print excess flyers,” she says.
If homeowners decide they do want to stop receiving junk mail, Au says printing out the letter on Ringdahl’s website isn’t necessary; a note on the mailbox—inside the door if the box is in an apartment building or condo—will suffice.
A warning, however: Stopping junk mail also halts delivery of municipal-service notices such as town hall meeting announcements and snow removal and garbage pickup schedules, Au says.
