The latest video is called 'Hamlet'. I filmed it almost year ago but just didn't get round to editing all the footage. As I had feared it took about a week to finish the film; that useless Pinnacle software kept freezing and crashing my computer and then did all sorts of mysterious things with the sound while exporting the film. You can still hear an example of this when the alien makes its appearance (four minutes into the film).

Editing films with inferior software is a bit like stopping just mail using inferior opt-out schemes; you have to make a huge effort to get anywhere. Still, the end result makes it all worth it. Or well, I'll let you be the judge of that…

A big thank you to Tom Carver (who not only plays the actor in the film but is also an actor in real life), Mick Hardy (the junk mail deliverer who so beautifully pushes all that stuff through the letter box) and Eloise O'Hare (who made her outfit herself!).

The launch of Junk Buster has not gone unnoticed. So far, 1,166 opt-outs requests have been submitted via the application*; the average is a little over 20 a day. Nowhere near enough of course but not exactly the worst possible start either.

Many people have asked me how it is possible that there wasn't a one-point-stop for opting out of junk mail before. The answer to that question is that opt-out schemes are almost always run by the junk mail industry. They don't do this to provide the public with an easy and effective service; industry-run schemes are set up purely to create the impression that they're taking 'consumers' seriously and doing their bit for the environment. Why else have marketeers never organised a marketing campaign to promote schemes such as Royal Mail's Door-to-Door Opt-Out (less than 0.5 per cent of British household opted out in 2008) and the Direct Marketing Association's Your Choice Preference Scheme? Enter their names in any search engine and I bet you'll end up not on the Royal Mail or DMA website but on the Stop Junk Mail website instead.

Yet, to my surprise, even the DMA now seems to be enthusiastic about Junk Buster. This afternoon the representative of junk mailers in the UK used the application to register with all six opt-out schemes, including two schemes run by themselves! Unfortunately, the DMA was not able to enter its own address correctly; there's no street called 'Test' in London. This is slightly worrying as it's the same DMA that always talks about 'clean' and 'up to date' mailing lists. Luckily, I was able to trace the IP address (89.105.116.130) so that it was easy enough to figure out that the private e-mail address that was entered (s.boy@talk21.com) belongs to a Junk Mail Rep.

Come on DMA, don't be so sly. If you want to know how Junk Buster works, just ask.

* The critical reader will have noticed that an average of 20 opt-out requests per day doesn't result in a total number of 1,166 in less than 10 days time. The explanation is that the total number includes requests that were collected via the Stop Junk Mail website prior to the launch of Junk Buster.

For the last couple of months I have been working on a new website build around an application that makes it possible to contact the six main junk mail opt-out schemes in the UK in one go. Last evening junkbuster.org.uk was finally ready to go live…

The Junk Buster application creates a much needed one-point-stop for getting rid of junk mail. Having to contact six different opt-out schemes separately is time-consuming and discouraging and is no doubt one of the reasons why so few people use them. Junk Buster is here to change that.

The opt-out schemes include Royal Mail's Door-to-Door Opt-Out, the Your Choice Preference Scheme for Unaddressed Mail and the Mailing Preference Service, as well as three opt-outs for the main directories in the UK: the Yellow Pages, Thomson Local and BT Phone Book. In total you can stop some 250 pieces of junk mail (or about 11 kilos) a year.

As you would expect, using Junk Buster is quick, easy and completely free. You simply select which of the opt-out schemes you want to contact, enter your name and address - and you're done. In less than a minute's time you can reduce junk mail by up to 60 per cent. Do use it and do spread the news!

It's called Re-use those envelopes and that's exactly what the film is about. Paper waste is one of the reasons why I started Stop Junk Mail (the other reason is of course a dislike dislike of unsolicited, cheap and nasty advertising). And there's an obvious link between junk mail and envelopes; the 4.5 billion pieces of addressed junk mail posted through British letter boxes every year almost all come in an envelope. Re-use labels are a great invention. I post all items we sell in re-used envelopes, saving tons of paper and money.

With Christmas approaching rapidly it might be a good time to start saving your envelopes and getting some of these!

What inspired me to conduct a door-to-door opt-out survey is that only recently I experienced myself how Royal Mail simply ignores requests to stop delivering unaddressed items. In fact, I started receiving more junk mail from my postie; on two occasions I got no less than six pieces of junk mail on a single day.

When I complained to Royal Mail about this I first got this e-mail advising me to register with the Mailing Preference Service. After I had explained that my complaint was about unaddressed mail delivered by Royal Mail - and not about addressed advertising mail, I got an e-mail asking me to ring 08457 034 599 to find out whether or not Royal Mail had in fact delivered the items I had complained about. The 0845 number turned out to be the number of the Direct Marketing Association. Obviously, they were unable to confirm anything; they have nothing to do with unaddressed mail delivered by Royal Mail.

The next e-mail asked me to post all the original leaflets to Royal Mail Customer Services - costing me £1.24 in postage. In the end this did sort the issue; two months after I had first complained I got a letter acknowledging that the service I had received was "unacceptable" and that "action had been taken" to make sure I would no longer receive Royal Junk Mail.

I have not received a single unaddressed item from the postman since. But… how many people are willing to go through a process like this? I reckon most people would simply give up, concluding that junk mail is just as unavoidable as death and the tax man.

The survey has been set up to try to persuade Royal Mail to improve the service it's providing. When you use the opt-out form on our website to stop junk mail delivered by Royal Mail, please do tick the box to say you're happy for us to ask you in about three months time how effective opting out has been. [ The opt-out form no longer exists - JB ].