UK Junk Mail: How Many Trees Does it Equal?

[wolram]

Out of 12 letters i had today only one was of any interest, a letter from my credit card company that informed me that owe i them nothing, the rest was junk mail, if you averaged all the junk mail sent in the UK how many trees would that equal?

 

[Anttech]

you want an exact figure or an approximation ?? ?? ??

 

[wolram]

you want an exact figure or an approximation ?? ?? ??

To within an OM or three decimal places will do

 

[Moonbear]

Even my legitimate mail comes with junk packed inside it. They put a bunch of ads in with every credit card bill. We don't have curbside recycling here either, so either I have to lug all that extra paper to a recycling center, which I'm not inclined to do, or just send it out with the regular trash for the landfill. I wish they would just stop sending me all that junk. The scary part is I've nearly lost a few real bills as they get mixed up in all the other junk mail that I'm tossing aside. The same with my work mailbox. Most of my important correspondence is done by email, and usually all I get of importance in my mailbox is the occassional internal memo where keeping a signed hardcopy is necessary, oh, and my paystub. The rest is complete junk that I often don't give more than a quick glance to determine it's junk and toss it directly into the trash can next to the mail boxes.

 

[turbo]

I don't know about the UK, but here in the US, 100 million trees/yr is often quoted as the number of trees required to produce all those catalogs, flyers, cards, letters, and envelopes that show up unsolicited in our mail boxes. I used to work in the paper industry, and I can guarantee you that the loss of the trees (which can be regrown) is just the tip of the iceberg. Making paper is very energy-intensive, and depending on the location of the mill, the steam and electrical power may be provided in whole or in part by burning coal or other fossil fuels. And if the paper is very high-quality, chances are the fiber is produced by chemical digestion in a Kraft digester (lots of chemicals involved that have to be recovered and reused) and the fiber will be bleached with chlorine, chlorine dioxide, or (getting more common) peroxide or similar.

 

[wolram]

100 million trees/yr and i did not even think of all that other stuff
Turbo.

My other pet hate is telephone canvasers, i have two ways of dealing with em, if as soon as they start talking i know what their game is, i either make out i can not hear them, hello, hello, hello, or some times if i feel like it i will keep them on the phone as long as possible, even keeping them hanging on as i answer an imaginary knock on the door, i managed to keep a double glazing rep on the phone for 20mins.

 

[Hootenanny]

My other pet hate is telephone canvasers, i have two ways of dealing with em, if as soon as they start talking i know what their game is, i either make out i can not hear them, hello, hello, hello, or some times if i feel like it i will keep them on the phone as long as possible, even keeping them hanging on as i answer an imaginary knock on the door, i managed to keep a double glazing rep on the phone for 20mins.

I just hang up, I don't even speak to the b#st#rds

 

[wolram]

I just hang up, I don't even speak to the b#st#rds

I used to tell them to bog off, but i get some enjoyment out of playing them
up now, i had what sounded like an asian guy shouting down the phone as i kept telling him i could not make out what he was saying.

 

[Hootenanny]

I used to tell them to bog off, but i get some enjoyment out of playing them
up now, i had what sounded like an asian guy shouting down the phone as i kept telling him i could not make out what he was saying.

Sounds like fun, I might try it next time. Dance puppets dance!

 

[turbo]

An older friend of mine down in Mississippi kept a vinyl-siding hawker on the phone for over 1/2 hour asking all kinds of clueless questions before telling the guy he had a brick house with vinyl-clad windows. I laughed and asked why he kept it up for so long and he said that since he is retired and had time on his hands, he thought he'd do a good deed and "save someone else the trouble of talking to the fella".

 

[gravenewworld]

I <3 <3 <3 junk mail. I save all the junk mail I get and stuff it into the envelopes that you are supposed to return your replies in and that have the postage already paid. that way you get to mail junk mail back to the places for free! I laugh my a$$ off everytime i do it, I've been doing it for years too. Just make sure to take off your name/any identifying info off the stuff.

 

[wolram]

I <3 <3 <3 junk mail. I save all the junk mail I get and stuff it into the envelopes that you are supposed to return your replies in and that have the postage already paid. that way you get to mail junk mail back to the places for free! I laugh my a$$ off everytime i do it, I've been doing it for years too. Just make sure to take off your name/any identifying info off the stuff.

What a great idea I wonder if adding some thing like talcum powder would make it even better.

 

[Chi Meson]

I <3 <3 <3 junk mail. I save all the junk mail I get and stuff it into the envelopes that you are supposed to return your replies in and that have the postage already paid. that way you get to mail junk mail back to the places for free! I laugh my a$$ off everytime i do it, I've been doing it for years too. Just make sure to take off your name/any identifying info off the stuff.

They've started to add a "bluff" to the envelopes with an "identifying" bar code on the back of the envelope plus a warning that "any unauthorized used of this envelope will incur legal action." It's a total bluff. I used to mail back the junk, but now I save all junk paper as fuel for my wood stove.

With your sickly chimney, Wolram, I don't recommend it.

 

[gravenewworld]

They've started to add a "bluff" to the envelopes with an "identifying" bar code on the back of the envelope plus a warning that "any unauthorized used of this envelope will incur legal action." It's a total bluff. I used to mail back the junk, but now I save all junk paper as fuel for my wood stove.

With your sickly chimney, Wolram, I don't recommend it.

easy solution=taking a black magic marker and going over the bar code.

 

[Wishbone]

what a boring thread.

 

[turbo]

I usually toss junk mail and don't bother retaliating, but about 20 years ago I got a notice in my Rural Delivery mailbox that I had a postage-due letter. That meant making a trip to town to go to the post office, and paying for the insufficient postage (before the jerk at the counter would even let me see that the "letter" was junk mail). The letter was a solicitation from a company selling fasteners (bolts, screws, etc), and they had sent some samples in the envelope, without sufficient postage to cover the weight of the samples. I was more than a little ticked off at that situation. Luckily, they had provided a postage-paid return envelope for the order form. I went to my shop, where there was a partial roll of old lead flashing (for roofing work around chimneys), and I got out my metal shears and cut up a big fat bundle of lead that "just" fit in the envelope, and I reinforced the envelope's edges with tape to make sure that the entire parcel arrived in good shape. I used the back of the order form (why waste a usable piece of paper?) to explain to them just how pleased I was to be able to cost them a bunch of money. Cost? Probably a couple of bucks worth of left-over lead flashing. They paid a lot more for the postage. I still grin about that one, from time to time.

 

[wolram]

I usually toss junk mail and don't bother retaliating, but about 20 years ago I got a notice in my Rural Delivery mailbox that I had a postage-due letter. That meant making a trip to town to go to the post office, and paying for the insufficient postage (before the jerk at the counter would even let me see that the "letter" was junk mail). The letter was a solicitation from a company selling fasteners (bolts, screws, etc), and they had sent some samples in the envelope, without sufficient postage to cover the weight of the samples. I was more than a little ticked off at that situation. Luckily, they had provided a postage-paid return envelope for the order form. I went to my shop, where there was a partial roll of old lead flashing (for roofing work around chimneys), and I got out my metal shears and cut up a big fat bundle of lead that "just" fit in the envelope, and I reinforced the envelope's edges with tape to make sure that the entire parcel arrived in good shape. I used the back of the order form (why waste a usable piece of paper?) to explain to them just how pleased I was to be able to cost them a bunch of money. Cost?
Probably a couple of bucks worth of left-over lead flashing. They paid a lot more for the postage. I still grin about that one, from time to
time.