An organization called 41 Pounds promises to raise awareness of the environmental damage by “unwanted and wasteful solicitations”. According to the site, each year 4 million tons of junk mail are produced per year in the US, 100 million trees destroyed and “$320 million of local taxes are used to dispose of this unsolicited mail”. The site offers to “contact 20-30 direct mailers on your behalf to stop the majority of bulk mail that comes to your home every day.”
For $41.
Although we believe in their cause, there’s something odd about the site - is there another reason behind the site? It seems a little too slick and there’s no transparency. There’s no information on the people behind the site. You don’t know where the donated money goes to. It’s a play to make cash rather than really help. We’re not against people making money out of green issues, it’s just that it feels like a big greenwashing stunt.
What do you think?
[via Josh Spear]
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Do Not Mail Opt-Out Law would be fair to everyone.
The proposed recent “Do not mail” is an Opt-Out law. Only those not desiring advertising mail need opt-out. Anyone desiring advertising mail can do nothing - and continue to receive it. Why deny those wishing to avoid advertising mail the power to do so?
I do not consider handling unwanted advertising placed against my will on my personal property to be a civic obligation!
The US Supreme Court said in the Rowan case in 1970, ““In today’s [1970] complex society we are inescapably captive audiences for many purposes, but a sufficient measure of individual autonomy must survive to permit every householder to exercise control over unwanted mail. To make the householder the exclusive and final judge of what will cross his threshold undoubtedly has the effect of impeding the flow of ideas, information, and arguments that, ideally, he should receive and consider. Today’s merchandising methods, the plethora of mass mailings subsidized by low postal rates, and the growth of the sale of large mailing lists as an industry in itself have changed the mailman from a carrier of primarily private communications, as he was in a more leisurely day, and have made him an adjunct of the mass mailer who sends unsolicited and often unwanted mail into every home. It places no strain on the doctrine of judicial notice to observe that whether measured by pieces or pounds, Everyman’s mail today is made up overwhelmingly of material he did not seek from persons he does not know. And all too often it is matter he finds offensive.”
Furthermore, the Supreme Court said, “the mailer’s right to communicate is circumscribed only by an affirmative act of the addressee giving notice that he wishes no further mailings from that mailer.
To hold less would tend to license a form of trespass and would make hardly more sense than to say that a radio or television viewer may not twist the dial to cut off an offensive or boring communication and thus bar its entering his home. Nothing in the Constitution compels us to listen to or view any unwanted communication, whatever its merit; we see no basis for according the printed word or pictures a different or more preferred status because they are sent by mail.”
We need a nationwide “Do Not Mail” law to create a one-stop, convenient place for homeowners to give senders the aforementioned affirmative notice that we do not want certain kinds of mail sent to our homes.
http://www.newdream.org/emails/ta19.html
Signed,
Ramsey A Fahel
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:43 pm
US Postal Service won’t let you refuse mail.
If the US Postal Service would abide by its own rule, each homeowner could easily stop junk mail from getting into their mailbox by putting a written notice on their mailbox expressing their preference.
The US Postal Services practices are supposed to be according to the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM). The DMM contains provision 508.1.1.2 that says, “Refusal at Delivery: The addressee may refuse to accept a mailpiece when it is offered for delivery.” I interpret this rule to mean that if a homeowner wants to refuse an unwanted mailpiece (i.e. junk mail), the homeowner can do so when the mailpiece is offered for delivery. More to the point – refuse it before it is put into the mailbox!
In practical application, since the postal carrier comes to homes at different times each day, the homeowner cannot be waiting at the mailbox to dialogue with the mail carrier about each mailpiece. The only realistic way to interpret 508.1.1.2 therefore is that the homeowner should post a notice on the mailbox telling the postal carrier about the homeowner’s preference. The notice to the postal service must be specific and unambiguous. For instance, a homeowner should certainly be able to write, “No mail that is not addressed to the Jones” because that does not require the postal carrier to make a subjective judgment. On the other hand, it would not be acceptable to write “no junk mail” because the definition of “junk mail” is subjective and the mail carrier cannot decide.
Unfortunately, the US Postal Service has written to me that they will NOT honor a notice refusing mail, not matter how specifically it is worded, because the postal carrier does not have time to sort through the mail at my mailbox to pick out the pieces that are not addressed to me. Therefore, the US Postal Service is passing their sorting and disposing task onto me by putting all the mail they want into my mailbox, even though this seemingly violates 508.1.1.2.
Since the U.S. Postal Service will not abide by 508.1.1.2, homeowners need to stop unwanted mail at the source (i.e. by blocking the sender from sending it). We need a nationwide “Do Not Mail” law to create a one-stop, convenient place for homeowners to give senders notice that we do not want certain kinds of mail sent to our homes.
http://www.newdream.org/emails/ta19.html
Signed,
Ramsey A Fahel
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:44 pm
I signed up for 41pounds - they sent me a bunch of postcards - they ‘promise’ to donate half their profits - but give no more info - there is no qualification and back up data… And I still get tons of junk mail!!!
I am switching to greendimes.com who not only actually stops the junkmail, they plant trees for you and are transparent, have back up data and you can actually email with people in their company.
sign up now at http://www.greendimes.com
April 5th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
This 41 pounds company is two guys in their garage!! What systems can they possibly have in place to stop junk mail for 5 years? This is a total scam!
April 5th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Maybe if the allegations against “41 pounds” didn’t come from a marketing site, they might be more credible.
April 28th, 2007 at 12:21 am
To correct the untrue statements made in previous postings…I’m a co-founder of 41 Pounds:
Our service reduces household junk mail by 85-90% and lasts for 5 years – at a cost of $8.20 per year ($41 total). We stop most common junk mail such as credit card offers, coupon mailers, and insurance promotions, as well as the catalogs you specify (currently our record is over 250 catalog companies contacted for 1 subscriber).
We’re proud to have raised more than $25,000 for environmental and community organizations in our short history – including Trees for the Future, American Forests, WildWest Institute, Friends of the Urban Forest and Habitat for Humanity (East Bay). When you sign up for the 41 Pounds service, we donate more than 1/3 of your fee to the nonprofit organization you select.
41 Pounds was founded by my two brothers and myself in Ferndale, Michigan. We have lean, cost-effective operations, and we pass on that benefit to the nonprofit groups in the form of major donations every month.
About doing it yourself — yes, you can do all the leg-work yourself to remove yourself from all the direct mail and catalog lists out there, but it will take you quite awhile. We contact 20 to 35 direct marketing companies and catalog companies and instruct them to remove your name from their distribution lists. We do it efficiently, and our customers tell us it’s worth every cent!
If you have any questions about our service, please go to http://www.41pounds.org or feel free to contact me directly [tim@41pounds.org]
Let’s all stop junk mail and save trees, water, energy, and time!
- Tim
April 28th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
GreenDimes.com - It looks like you all are running the scam yourselves. I have been a proud member of 41pounds.org for months now, and YES, I am really happy with their services. Why are you picking on them so much?
Laurie David of http://www.StopGlobalWarming.org is FULLY supporting this company. She wouldn’t have gotten involved unless she knew what she was doing…right!
I see you have Matt Damon on your Board of Directors. Good job! I hope he researched your company before getting involved with it. By the way, your CEO, Pankaj Shah, used to be with 4Info… correct? I now see that 4Info is sponsoring http://www.StopGlobalwarming.org, your 41pounds.org competitor. I guess it really is a small world.
July 1st, 2007 at 5:15 am