I bet you're tired of all the
coupons, catalogs, credit
card applications all
clogging your mailbox well,
most of us call a junk mail,
but there are some who say
it's not junk.
It gave you. Defenders looked
at how this mail gets to you,
its impact on the environment
and what you can do about it.
Here's investigative reporter Erica Proffer.
What if I told you there was a way?
A way to navigate through all of
this this what some called junk mail.
Yes, Taylor Youngblood did.
Mail is quite a burden on the end.
User Taylor teaches her Austin
neighbors how to ease that burden.
OK, so this is something she writes about it,
not on paper.
Of course, on her online blog,
I like to use Catalog Choice.
For more national stuff,
catalog Choice is a website to help
you reduce unwanted marketing mail.
Taylor signed up with variations of her name,
something she may see on
the front of her mail,
like mine shows Erica Proffer Erica
in Proffer and Erica Nicole Proffer.
You can't be like any and all things
that were tailored now and then.
The company website says they
have no control of getting your
name off marketing lists so Taylor
uses other opt out websites too
like dmachoice.org direct mail.
Comandoptoutprescreen.com she also calls
individual companies asking for removal.
Nothing lasts forever.
She says it's worth it to her,
worth it for the environment.
This unsolicited mail adds the
defenders had four people,
collect their marketing mail
throughout March, even during what
marketers call the slow season.
Let's see. Credit card offers.
Grass cutting.
There's another real estate.
Our mail pieces,
the papers that piled on the table.
They just.
Show up the US Environmental
Protection Agency's latest data shows
all marketing mail created in 2018
would weigh more than £8 billion.
Maybe one thing if I got coupons out of it,
but that's nearly £25 per person.
This isn't even coupons for only one year.
I don't know if I can even get to the
bottom and lay it all out flat enough
for Perry Bedford to take notice.
I think it could be overwhelming,
definitely with the amount
of junk mail that we get.
He's the vice chair for the
Austin Environmental Commission.
It's a group that acts as a liaison
between the community and City Council.
If you don't have a recycling program
where you gonna do with the mail,
you're gonna throw it away. But
how does so many businesses
know where you live?
One way is through here,
not your phone, but online.
That's where we shop and connect with others,
but that online activity may be
collected and sold by data brokers,
credit bureaus and banks.
Also sell your information
and we found anytime you move,
your new address gets sold
by the post office.
It's the change of address form.
You let the post office know
where to forward your mail.
The Privacy Act statement shows that
we do not disclose your information
to third parties without your consent,
except then less more than a
dozen exceptions including USPS
licensed service providers.
These providers are some of the
nation's largest data brokers.
USPS wouldn't go on camera with us,
so we reached out to the Association
of national advertisers.
It's a group for marketers.
I'm a little nerd on this stuff.
Cindy Boone says what's stuffed
in your mailbox.
Without your request is not junk.
Certainly no one wants to be
in a situation where you know
the consumers like Oh my gosh,
this is a piece of junk.
Let me just toss it in the trash.
That is not what the industry is about.
There's the Val Pak.
She says it helps the local stores as
much as national chains, grass cutting.
The marketers want to reach
someone who would be a good client?
What about the ones that look kind
of like a newspaper or something
like that and is very local?
Might be really important
to a particular family.
Someone who's. Clipping coupons,
someone who's really looking
to save some money right now.
US Representative Pete Sessions agrees
we have to have all of us work together.
The congressman was part of
reforming the post office this year.
He listened as the postmaster general
said, the system was failing.
The post office kept losing money.
We need to have a stronger marketing
and product oriented type of service.
The post office doesn't offer
its own opt out service.
It's incentivized to keep your
address on marketing lists.
Last year marketers postage
totaled more than $14 billion.
The Postal Service got more than
4 billion last quarter alone.
Do you think when it comes
to that marketing mail,
the unsolicited ones?
Do you think that we should have more
in order to bring in more revenue?
Essential. That small business have an
attribute to be able to sell their products.
This is what I got in the mail.
And it's not that bad.
I've seen worse, really, yes.
Additionally, there's stuff that
you're legitimately signed up from,
so like if this is your bank,
they're sending me something.
You know advertising,
like a referral.
That's not the same thing as this.
Yeah, and there are.
There is data that having
something tangible in front
of you can be more effective.
the US Postal Service told us in
an email they recommend people
to opt out using dmachoice.org.
Also, the USPS website shows you can write
refused on any mail from within the US.
I always try and tell people you just do
the best that you can for what's going
on because people have a lot going on.
If you want to opt out of marketing mail,
we have all of the links that we
mentioned on our website with this
story at kvue.com in Austin for the
key defenders I'm Erica Proffer.
Thanks Erica now marketing or junk
mail made up nearly 37% of all revenue
for the Postal Service last year,
and it's been going up this year.
The Cave view defenders found most
of the postal services budget goes
to employee salaries and benefits.