In the Netherlands we can get a free mailbox sticker.
There are some options:<p><pre><code> No-No: No advertising and magazines.
No-Yes: No advertising, magazines excluded.
</code></pre>
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In the UK we have the Mail Preference Service which allows people to opt out of most (but not all) junk mail. We also have another system which allows people to opt out of the rest. It'd be nice if it was a single page that did both, but it's better than nothing.<p>Personally, I'd prefer the Royal Mail to have an expensive stamp for letters that was almost guaranteed next day delivery, and a regular stamp for letters that meant "next 3 to 5 business days". I'd like them to deliver business letters before 9am, but domestic letters could be before 4pm. These steps would save the UK mail delivery a lot of money, but have been deeply unpopular when proposed before.
I spend two minutes a day collecting junk mail from my mail box and throwing it into the recycle bin. That's 624 minutes a year. One government employee puts trash into my mail box and another government employee takes it away. Any useful mail I receive can be either delivered by electronic methods or UPS/FedEx.
Sweeping most of the contents of my mailbox into the trash bin isn't that hard. My inner ecologist and economist is much more put off by it than my inner "consumer". When I think about all those trees, and all the net energy expended on the production and delivery of junk mail, it just makes me want to cry.
FYI Here's the FTC advice page listing opt-out information:
<a href="http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicited-mail-phone-calls-and-email" rel="nofollow">http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicit...</a><p>As part of the Christmas present for my folks I helped them add their names to the various opt-out lists. The gift of less spam keeps giving.
It's the same damn crap here in Australia and it's making me furious.<p>It's stupid that there's more sensitivity on the online spam issue than the physical spam.<p>The mail box is a part of my property, why aren't I entitled to choosing who can use it and who can't?<p>It's not legal to just dump a bunch of ads on someone's lawn every day, why is it legal to dump it in their mailbox?<p>Just imagine the waste. I get ads that are not even remotely relevant to me. Really weird specific stuff that you'd think that maybe 1 out of every 500 person would be interested in.<p>Here's an idea,<p>Build a customer base of people with their interests, then print a custom catalog with deals and ads and everything specifically for their interests and send it to them. So my neighbour gets sweet fishing deals and I get the nerdy deals and my wife gets the clothing ads.
Conversions will be a lot higher.