this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2025
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Well, no.. but why refuse junk mail?
That's a resource being sent to you.
It's ok to work out how to use it. Those junk flyers make great barbecue starters, birdcage or catbox liners, packing for when you ship an item, the unprinted backsides of the letters are good to use for shopping lists and small to do notes..
Local grade schools can sometime use the junk mail newsprint for kids arts classes when they have paper mache projects (I've called to ask if they have needs of anything and ended up dropping off reams of that to my nearby school's art teacher..)
The rest of it goes straight away into a dedicated paper recycling bin.
(I even take those ubiquitous plastic shopping bags to the Walmart drop off bins for them.)
I don't refuse junk mail. I indicate my preference to not have it printed on paper, sent some distance, and hand delivered. I refuse it at the origin, not the destination.
Worst case, the postal service recycles it at origin instead of having to ship it.
Junk mail is junk.
It isn't a resource.
I don't think I've ever received something that meaningfully contributes towards a purchase that I actually want to make.
I buy what I need. I find what I want, I think about if I actually need it, I find local manufacturers, I find local suppliers.
I see if the price difference between local & inter/national is worth the saving (most of the time, it isn't and I'd rather buy from a local manufacturer or supplier, even at twice the price).
Then I decide if I should buy something.
Some paper shipped across the country and shoved through my letterbox is not going to influence my decision AT ALL.
In fact, it's more likely to negatively impact my purchasing decision.
Because here is a company that has excess profits to physical cold-advertise something to me, regardless if I have an interest in it or not.
What a waste of money, resources and time.
Oh, you and I are identical in that respect. Hate people trying to sell me shit. Am firmly from the "Don't call us, we'll call you.." department.
God's honest, in my late 20's I made the decision to turn my head when ads came on the TV, (refused to view them at all) and by the late 90's when high speed internet rolled out, we cut the cord.
No cable TV by 1999. Fully gone.
Within a few years, I'd found out how to use a hosts file (Dan Pollock's - it's still available) and blocked as much of the ad content I could on the computer. Now I'm rolling with uBO. (and still have Dan's hosts file enabled within it.)
My only exception is for food.
Where I live, we get lots of local grocery store flyers that are still printed on heavyweight newsprint so I'll often check out the produce sections or meat specials.. but that's about it.
Then those go into a stack that either goes to recycling or off to the schools or shops that use the paper - gladly - to pack merchandise for shipping. (bubble wrap has gotten ridiculously priced in the last few years)
The rest gets converted into notepaper or recycled.