Until the end of the year Stop Junk Mail will be raising money for the ObserverTree; a platform high up in a Eucalyptus tree in the heart of an old-growth forest in Tasmania. The forest was to be protected by the Tasmanian Government but, as it goes, the island state's politicians are reluctant to stand up to a major logging company eager to turn the forest into a mono-culture tree plantation (and sell the wood as an 'eco product').

The tree is being squatted by Miranda Gibson. Via her blog (observertree.org) she writes about the forest; about what's it like to live in a tree; and about how both politicians and businesses are unwilling to protect the last remaining ancient forests. This December she'll have lived in the ObserverTree for a year.

A short blab about Stop Junk Mail Causes

The idea behind 'Causes' is simple: 10% of the revenue from sales via the Stop Junk Mail website is donated to a good cause. Money is raised for a cause for three or four months. The ObserverTree is the fifth cause.

This weekend I donated £86.40 to the previous cause: Vim / ICCF Holland. Slightly disappointing - my aim is always £100. You need to buy more stickers!

An interesting article appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald last week. A Sydney resident chased a junk mail deliverer who had ignored his 'No Junk Mail' sign to find out what possessed him. The kid had seen the sticker, understood what is meant by 'No Junk Mail', but had been given written instructions by the distribution company he worked for to ignore any 'No Junk Mail' signs.

The Morning Herald contacted the distribution company to learn it does have a policy of respecting 'No Junk Mail' signs. But… there are two exceptions: information from local or central government will always be delivered, and the sender has the right to demand that requests not to receive leaflets are ignored.

The first exception makes sense. I've long argued for a system whereby a distinction is made between commercial and non-commercial leaflets. It's why I'm promoting stickers that read No Commercial Leaflets (rather than 'No Junk Mail'). The second exception, though, is highly offensive. In both Australia and the UK there's no legislation governing unaddressed junk mail; the industry is trusted to regulate itself. Clearly, when the industry is knowingly ignoring perfectly polite requests not to receive unsolicited leaflets it's not up to that task.

Surely junk mailers in the UK are responsible?

Is the story relevant to the UK? Very much so. This week I was contacted by someone who also managed to trace a distributor routinely ignoring 'No Junk Mail' signs. The offender was Jog Post, a distribution company that makes junk mail deliverers do their rounds running (no chance of chasing the delivery boys and girls, I guess). Jog Post explained that the sender, Pizza Hut, had asked Jog Post to ignore 'No Junk Mail' signs.

Interestingly, I was contacted by Jog Post last year. They asked me if I could sell stickers that read 'No Junk Mail, except Jog Post'. The company claims to offer ethical leaflet distribution, and it felt there should be an exception to the 'No Junk Mail' rule just for them. Of course this was a non-starter but I did ask Jog Post about its policy on 'No Junk Mail' signs. The response, received by e-mail on 23 July 2010, was:

We never deliver to 'no junk mail' and doing so can lead to instant dismissal from our company, we have a zero tolerance policy that all our staff are aware of from the outset, we take our reputation very seriously.

Ethical leaflet distribution, right? Jog Post's greenwash once again shows the industry is unable to regulate itself. When the recipient of the Pizza Hut leaflet contacted Jog Post they replied that they were doing what their clients wanted because this meant more revenue for them. To add insult to injury Jog Post offered to take the person's address off its distribution list.

That's all fine, but what's the solution?

An idea I'm working on at the moment is a licensing scheme for distribution companies. At the moment there's nothing you can do when companies like Jog Post ignore perfectly polite 'No Junk Mail' signs - the industry is regulating itself and has so far failed to say anything on the subject of 'No Junk Mail' signs. Licensing schemes, which could be run by local authorities, would allow you to enforce your (as yet non-existent) right not to receive unaddressed, unsolicited junk mail. If you have any thoughts on this, the newsgroup is the appropriate place to share them.

No doubt it's going to take a long time before such schemes are introduced (if it's ever going to happen). In the meantime I'd encourage you to return any unaddressed junk mail to the sender. Find the offender's address, and return the leaflet in an unstamped envelope with a polite note asking to respect 'No Junk Mail' signs in future. You see, it's all about money. When ignore people's wishes starts costing the sender pounds and pennies they will start showing some respect.

Have you ever looked in the Yellow Pages to find out how to go about opting out of receiving the directory? If so, you'll have found that this information is not included in the book. Yell seems to have convinced itself that the directory is great for the environment and that having less books printed would amount to an environmental disaster.

So, for those of us who reckon that reducing waste is still preferable over recycling, here is what you need to do to stop the Yellow Polluter…

If you're in the UK you can use Junk Buster to ask Yell to be opted out. At the same time you can send an opt-out request to Thomson Local and BT. If you have no interest in junk mail in general, you can also contact the three main junk mail opt-out services in the UK via Junk Buster. Alternatively, UK householders and businesses can ring Yell on 0800 671 444 or contact the company via this contact form on the Yell website.

In Ireland both the Eircom phone book and Yellow Pages are distributed by Truvo. To opt out, phone 01 46 000 46 or send an e-mail to info@truvo.ie.

The United States has got Yellow Pages Goes Green to get rid off unwanted directories. Via its website you can contact the various organisations that produce Yellow and White Pages. According to the website, these organisations will usually put you on a list if you ask them not to deliver the books, but they cannot be held to account if you continue to find books on your doorstep. However, Yellow Pages Goes Green is confident that the publishers will "act in accordance to the consumer's demands". [The Yellow Pages Goes Green website has since been taken over by the Yellow Pages - JB]

Citizens of United States, Australia, Canada and the UK can also sign a petition calling on the Yellow Pages Association to move to a strictly 'on-demand' system of printing directories at paperlesspetition.org. By signing the petition you are at the same time opting out of receiving the directory. Opting out of the White Pages is optional. [The Paperrless Petition website has also been bought by the Yellow Pages - JB]

In the Netherlands, stopdetelefoongids.nl is campaigning for an opt-out scheme for both the Yellow Pages and the phone book. So far, more than 19,581 people have signed the campaigners? petition for a central opt-out scheme for directories. If all these people would be allowed to opt out, some 35,000 kilos of paper (equivalent to 361 trees) and 17,676 kilos of CO2 would be saved.

Finally, Belgacom, the leading telecommunications company in Belgium, already allows householders to opt-out of receiving the 'white pages'. From the home page of 1207.be you'll find a somewhat hidden link to an opt-out form.

The Australian today reports that mayor Paul Pisasale of Ipswich, Queensland, has declared war on junk mail. He told the paper that too much junk mail is ending up on footpaths and front lawns: People delivering on our streets don't even get out of the car, they just turf it. Any resemblance to this material landing in your letter box is purely coincidental.

Ipswich City council will from now on consider prosecuting distributors of junk mail and free newspapers if they fail to clean up their act. Whether or not any distributor will ever be prosecuted remains to be seen, but I like the mayor's spirit. I reckon he might want to take note of this letter, sent to me by someone in the UK.

Photo by Willy Bach (who's encouraging local councils across Australia to start prosecuting distribution companies that litter streets).

According to his website, Alan Waddell has been described by a former Australian Health Minister as a legend. Others have named him a grandfather who has achieved cult fame and the North Shore's most famous athlete. Alan, aged 93, has walked 264 of Sydney's 637 suburbs, and has taken over 2,000 photographs of interesting things he comes across.

The website includes a section on letter boxes. The photos below only are a small selection; there are lots more on the Walk Sydney Streets website.

Many thanks to Alan Waddell for giving permission to publish these photos on this blog.