Warwickshire says no to junk mail
This week may be Recycle Week, but many Warwickshire residents are signing up to a service which stops the piles of junk mail ever entering your home, never mind the recycling bin.
By signing up to the Mailing Preference Service thousands of Warwickshire residents are stopping junk mail from coming into their home.
And Warwickshire County Council has been overwhelmed by the efforts of the county’s residents with new figures showing that just over 60,000 of Warwickshire’s households, or 1 in 4 households, have signed up to the Mailing Preference Service.
This means a massive saving of 480 tonnes of paper. If this waste had gone in the rubbish it would cost Warwickshire around £20,160 in disposal costs each year.
Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment, said: “The amount of junk mail we all get through our doors is crazy. It’s great to see that Warwickshire residents are taking action by signing up to the mailing preference service. People also need to remember to sign back up to the Mailing Preference Service every couple of years to make sure the junk mail doesn’t start creeping back up.”
Warwickshire County Council’s target is to have 30 per cent of Warwickshire’s households signed up to the Mailing Preference Service by 2010 and 50% by 2013.
You can sign up to the mailing preference service by registering on their web site http://www.mpsonline.org.uk, by phoning them on 0845 703 4599 or by writing to them at: Mailing Preference Service, FREEPOST 29 (LON20771), London, W1E 0ZT
If people want to further reduce the amount of junk mail they receive they can:
Tick the opt out box when filling in product warrantees, competitions and catalogue forms to ensure their details are not passed to other companies
Choose not to have their name shown on the public copy of the electoral role as it is sold to mailing firms
Ask the Royal Mail’s Door to Door Service to not deliver unaddressed mail to their home by writing to: Door-to-Door Opt-Out, Royal Mail, Room 130, Wheatstone House, Wheatstone Road, Swindon, SN3 5JW
Place a “no junk mail” sticker on their letterbox to discourage delivered junk mail.