No Junk Mail

In order to reduce our waste, I decided to tackle the junk mail next. Junk mail is recyclable, but recycling still takes a lot of resources it seems, so it’s the next thing to go.

Our junk mail is a bit strange. Because we live out of town, we don’t get all the junk mail, just an odd selection. We don’t get the specials from any of the local supermarkets, which I would have used (but can see online or in the shop, so I don’t need in my mailbox).We just get the advertising from discount shops, hardware places and chain stores, some as far afield as Melbourne. It is all either irrelevant, or designed to create wants in myself and the family that we didn’t know we had. The Aunty Collector, who is now 12, is particularly fond of reading the junk mail for potential purchases.

So, I went looking for a ” No Junk Mail” sign at the shops. Everything I found was made of plastic, and well wrapped in even more plastic, so I made my own.

This is still made from plastic- let’s face it, my house is still full of the stuff from many years of collecting. But I used my garden marker pen and part of an old ice cream lid that had no container for this baby. My home made version is also more polite and less shouty than the shop versions, which all exclaimed “NO JUNK MAIL!” in large, shouty letters.

Let’s see if it makes a difference!