Junk mail sucks

In an effort to reduce the amount of junk mail in my house and to save paper, I went online to remove my name from the major direct mailing lists. After I filled out the form, here's the rather ironic text from the following page:

DMA's Mail Preference Service

Important: you have selected to eliminate all mailings from organizations participating in the DMA Mail Preference Service.

What you will miss.

The average household can save 1200 dollars per year from marketing offers.
You will no longer receive savings offers from these companies.

In fact, you will no longer receive offers and special savings for more than 80 percent of all commercial offers.

And you will miss the environmental benefits of shopping at home rather than driving to the mall!

By replacing just two shopping trips to the mall each year with shopping by catalogs or direct mail, DMA estimates that Americans could:

• Reduce the amount we drive by 3.3 billion miles.
• Reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 3 billion pounds.
• Save more than $490 million on gas costs.

When you click here, your name will be removed from future consumer prospect lists and you will see a significant reduction in all catalog and other commercial offers. If you wish to reconsider, click here and uncheck the box removing your name from DMA's member prospect lists.

DMA and all its members support the Commitment to Consumer Choice guidelines designed to better serve consumers and your right to choose to receive more of what you want and less of what you don't want. If you have questions about the CCC please visit the DMA web site homepage.

Seriously??? They're telling me that having hundreds of pounds of paper mail sent to me each year is actually good for the environment!??! Unbelievable. The best part about this whole endeavor -- I had to click on the link at the end of the text in order to actually have my request processed! Ridiculous. I'm sure 80% of the people who try to fill out that form don't even read that far down.

If you're interested in taking this small step for the sake of the planet, go to the DMA site but remember to click on the second to last link after you complete the form!