How Not To Win Friends and Influence People
If you read this blog regularly, you’ll know that I hate junk mail and have a sticker on my letter box to discourage people to not fill it up with unwanted paper.
But some people obviously can’t read.
Two were from a new grocery store down the road. As they don’t take my Times vouchers, I think it highly unlikely now, I’ll ever use them.
The other was from a gardener and judging by the number that were blowing around in the road, because he put them under car windscreen wipers, he wasn’t very popular either.
Hackney’s Junk Mail Sticker
I had to contact waste disposal at Hackney Council and mentioned how much junk mail I got. I did this by e-mail on info.hackney.gov.uk.
They have sent me a sensible sticker which now adorns my letter box.
Hackney's Junk Mail Sticker
It will be interesting to see if it cuts the amount of unaddressed rubbish I get through the door.
They also sent me a form to stop the Royal Mail sending me any.
On the back of the form it states that Hackney households receive approximately 35 million pieces of unwanted mail each year. This weighs 900 tonnes and takes 6,000 trees to make.
Incidentally, according to the 2001 Census there are 86,042 households in Hackney. So on average each receive 407 pieces of unwanted junk mail each year or over one piece a day.
I was also pleased to see that Hackney Council used tonnes and not tons on the form.
How To Get Up a Coeliac’s Nose
If there is one thing that annoys me living here, it is the amount of junk I get through my letter box. Most is flyers for fast food restaurants, none of which I would dream of using. As most of the food on offer is gluten-rich, it would do me harm.
I actually had one today from Subway, who claim that all their meat is halal. But their gluten-free offerings can be counted on the fingers of Nelson’s right hand.
I shall be sending a copy of this post to Subway.
Junk Through the Letter Box
Every time I get letters out of my box, there are at least four copies of leaflets there, which have been left by restaurants that don’t do gluten-free, mini-cabs that I won’t use etc.
When are these people going to learn something about marketing and target their junk? At least it’s recyclable!
Mail Scams
There is a piece this morning on the BBC about mail scams.
Since moving, I’ve been receiving the most amazing amount of junk through my letter box. A lot is flyers for things like takeaways and mini-cabs, neither of which I use. But some looks like mail scams, so it goes straight back in the conveniently placed pillar box opposite marked “Return to Sender”. As the house was tenanted before I bought it, there has also been a few letters, to those tenants, who might have done a runner.
I just wonder though, if all of the scam mail was sent back marked for return, the government and the Royal Mail, might take a bit more concerted action, against the countries from where it comes.
The Anonymous Widower 