Business Junk Mail Reduction Project

Employees are asked to save their unwanted mail individually, then give it to someone who has been put in charge of contacting the mailers to get the employees off the lists. This person might be a mailroom staffer, an intern, a clerical person or even a volunteer (using a volunteer is more likely if it's a government agency or non-profit, not a business). We'll call that person the Junk Mail Crusader. The "spokes" are the various employees funneling their junk mail to a central person, the Crusader.

One advantage to this method is that in a large office, there are usually many employees who have the same problem mailer. The Crusader can sort through the junk mail by mailer, make a list, then call the problem mailers and say, for example, "I have 12 employees at the Zootch Corporation who need to be taken off your mailing list." Mail sent to employees who are no longer there - a common problem - should automatically be given to the Crusader so the mailers can be notified.

The Wheel and Spoke method is probably the most efficient for most businesses, IF you have someone available to be the Junk Mail Crusader.

For an entertaining, detailed description of how one Junk Mail Crusader contacts mailers to get people in his office off lists, see this article by Paul Dunn.

For examples of how several other organizations and agencies have used the Wheel and Spoke method to reduce their unwanted mail, see these additional case studies.

With this method, individual employees are encouraged to get off mailing lists on their own. The company usually makes available a postcard that employees can send to mailers, requesting to get off lists.

Here's an example of a postcard you can use.

The Individual Approach does not require as much of a single employee's time as the the Wheel and Spoke system, but it does still require some organizing: Having the postcards printed, informing employees about the postcards, etc.

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