Junk mail and unsolicited print advertising

[invisible]

what do other people think of junk mail and other types of unsolicited print advertising? is it any better or worse than other forms of advertising? do you read it, recycle it? do you dodge people on the street who are handing it out?

it annoys me because i see it as environmentally wasteful and damaging. the amounts of it that we were receiving in the mail were overwhelming, felt sort of soul destroying. i put a sticker on our letterbox that says "NO JUNK MAIL PLEASE". does this make me a heartless grouch? do others use stickers like this? the quantity we receive is more manageable now, but we still get it. i wonder if the sticker said "NO ADVERTISING MATERIAL PLEASE" whether we would get less than with the current sticker.

 

[Free]

I also see it as a waste, but also as an intrusion. It leaves me with all this extra paper trash that I have to recycle. I don't have a recycling service to pick it up from my doorstep, I have to save all my recyclables in bins in my back yard and haul it down to the service center a few times a month. Which ok, no big deal, I take a lot there anyway, but these paper advertisements are the only paper items that I accumulate after going as 'paperless' as possible. All billing and statements are online now, no newspaper waste, no grocery paper waste. The only mail I seem to receive anymore are Amazon packages and legal documents. It's nothing more than an annoyance and sure as hell doesn't make me want to buy their product. I never even look at the blasted things. In the bin they go after a series of huffy eye rolls and under-the breath curses from me.