Paperchains

Lifehacker Australia posted in December about the situation in Australia with junk mail. They can’t stop newspapers either, but Advertising Material is covered:

The Australian Catalogue Association has a code of conduct saying members and their deliverers will not deliver materials to addresses displaying a “No Advertising Material” sign. This appears to be a voluntary code of conduct, but there’s a fairly long list of companies signed up to abide by it. The signees also agree not to litter or deliver when the mailbox is overflowing!

You can contact the Distribution Standards Board to add your address to the “do not deliver” list. They’ll also provide you with a free reflective No Advertising Material sticker. … Note that this won’t stop all unsolicited mail - newspapers are exempted, along with political pamphlets.

[Via : Opt out of receiving junk mail | Lifehacker Australia.]

In New Zealand it seems you can’t stop a so-called ‘free’ newspaper from being delivered. And once you have it, you have to dispose of it somehow:

This really bugs me. Someone somewhere is cutting down a forest, burning fossil fuel to transport and manufacture newsprint, wasting electricity to apply ink and then creating more air pollution to deliver to my letterbox something I absolutely don’t want. I don’t buy or read newspapers! Why would I want a ‘free’ newspaper?

Then I have to spend time and energy carrying this detritus up the path to be collected by the recycling truck who are burning fossil fuel to take it away again.

I wish it were email spam. Then I could unsubscribe and the law would make them stop sending me their junk.

[Via : What's worse than email spam? Dead tree spam.]

The refusal of a local ‘free’ newspaper to stop delivering their paper to me is one impetus for this blog.

I’ve no objection to paper itself — many of my friends tell me how much they like reading books on paper, for example. That’s fine.

But do we really need all those advertising pamphlets? Do I have to receive a newspaper I don’t want? Does the tax department still require paper copies of bank statements and receipts?

Or can we find ways to reduce the amount of paper that’s wasted in the world today?

And by reducing paper, can we make a difference, in even a small way to the problems of pollution and scarce resources that face us all?

This blog looks at all aspects of paper, where it comes from and where it goes, how we use it, and how we can reduce its waste.

Join in, leave comments, suggest a post, contribute ideas and thoughts. And welcome!

I’m Miraz Jordan, and I want less waste in the world.