Organised return to sender

[rkhff]

Quite a few people have suggested encouraging people to return all unwanted junk mail to the sender as a way of stopping unwanted mail / taking revenge. Although it's already one of the tips in the Guide to Stamping Out Junk Mail (www.stopjunkmail.org.uk/guide/return_to_sender.php) it's worth considering setting up a campaign.

My personal impression is that although many people like the idea of 'organised return to sender' few people are prepared to take action. Still, there's the potential to solve the junk mail issue once and for all; if enough people would be willing to routinely send all unsolicited junk back to the sender there'd soon be a lot less junk mail. I think any campaign should focus on 'people power' - convincing people that junk mail is an issue that can be solved if only we're willing to take action.

There are lots of creative ways of returning junk mail to the sender. For instance, people could be asked to return their junk on the last day of the month (for maximum impact), or people could be encouraged to send all their junk mail to the Freepost address of a particularly notorious offender  (Virgin Media springs to mind). Obviously, there are ethical issues here…

Another issue to consider is that just about all personally addressed junk mail can be stopped (via data protection notices - www.stopjunkmail.org.uk/guide/contact_sender.php). The return to sender approach is actually more suitable for _unaddressed_ junk mail (which is largely unregulated and of which there's a lot more). Unaddressed junk mail can be returned to the sender - you can stick it in an unstamped envelope, address it to sender, and deposit it in the nearest pillar box. Again, I'm not sure how ethical this is.

I'll contact the handful of people who have suggested the idea to me via e-mail and invite them to join the discussion. If nobody cares to join the idea is probably not worth pursuing…

[rkhff]

I've bought the domain returntosender.org.uk and have started work on a website around the return to sender theme. I expect the site will be launched next month (December 2011).

One thing I'm going to need are freepost addresses of junk mailers. I don't get much junk mail myself (just the unaddressed stuff from the postman, which I need for the Royal Junk Mail blog). If you got a freepost address, please either post them here or send them to me via e-mail.

So far I got one address:

Freepost RRUR-ABZU-KLRC
Everest Limited
St Andrews Court
12 St Andrew Street
PLYMOUTH
PL1 2AH

[West Field]

I will start making a note from now on.

[West Field]

I know this group will be closed soon, but just got this junk mail
this morning claiming to reduce to Council Tax banding, a bit of
googling reveals you can do this yourself and save the 25% PLUS VAT on
any refunds due that this company will charge you by contacting the
relevant government bodies directly, I posted it back using their own
freepost envelope with all their junk inside unsigned.

Randell & Vickers
FREEPOST : RSSK-ULSX-TZRB
Flint Glass Works
64 Jersey Street
Manchester
M4 6JW