Practice what you preach

[Mikebits]

I have a pet peeve. I have constantly heard from our government to cut down on paper usage as it kills trees which remove CO2 scrubbers and ultimately the paper can end up in a landfills.

So I try to do my part, I write on both side of a paper before I throw it away, I put my paper in our government required recycle bins, and I have set up most of my billing so that it is paperless, ie. email and web based.

So here my government is telling me to think Green, act more responsible to the environment, yet this same governments postal service pollutes my mailbox with a never ending influx of tree killing, landfill clogging, junk mail. I mean box loads of unwanted paper waste on a monthly basis.

The US postal response to this paper mountain debacle is that it helps keep postal rates low. So they now have found a convenient excuse to the inconvenient truth.

So cost is the reason to ignore the ecological health of this planet? I then wonder, how much money is spent sorting this junk fiasco of unwanted paper, how much longer do the postal carriers spend dispensing these printed sheets of uninvited drivel?

Sorry, Junk mail pisses me off.

 

[jrz126]

I put my paper in our government required recycle bins.

We had recycle bins at my previous job, they werent government required though. The guy that would empty them would come around and empty both the regular trash and the recyclables into a single can. I guess he was trying to make his job more efficient, he probably even got a promotion for it.

 

[killivolt]

So here my government is telling me to think Green, act more responsible to the environment, yet this same governments postal service pollutes my mailbox with a never ending influx of tree killing, landfill clogging, junk mail. I mean box loads of unwanted paper waste on a monthly basis.

I get the feeling they need to balance the economy by allowing some company's to take advantage of the ignorant. Like the e-mail from Nigeria to claim un-told millions.

Meanwhile, their postal workers are making their living on the balance of that equation. Darwin once again is proving humanity's need to evolve or die.

In this case the planet will throw the baby out with the bathwater, shaking us off like flees, before that deliver us a good spanking.

kv

 

[QuietMan]

It is a paradox, but it is likely to be solved in a manner not to our liking. The post office in the past depended on this junk mail to subsidize the other mail, but believe it or not junk mail is on the decrease, leaving the post office in the lurch. It seems email spam is cheaper and possibly more effective, so there is a good chance our post office will be extinct in the next 10 years.

 

[killivolt]

They want to make sure they have someone to walk the streets in Washington maybe they will subsidize their own system by sending us as much as possible on our own dime after we finally become fully Socialized.


kv

 

[DirtyLude]

We can simply ask the actual post man not to deliver junk mail. Our guy put a little red dot on the mailbox, which I guess is a reminder to him to not put in junk mail.

 

[QuietMan]

You really have the wrong slant, don't you have a fireplace?

 

[killivolt]

Good one just deliver all of it to my house. I'll be able to afford a scrubber after I cash in on all of those sweepstakes mailer as I sell off my mini power distribution station.

kv

 

[HiTech]

What annoys me are the utility companies chronically telling homeowners to take effective measures to reduce energy wasting, be it insulating, lowering room temps, reduce electrical use, etc. Then you go out into a town and notice that car dealer lots are over lighted, many stores/industrial shops leave way too many lights on when closed, have poor air-draft control, their HVAC systems run at full 24/7, water pipes/faucets dripping, and much more obvious neglect of needless energy wasting on their part. McDonald's newest buildings now have outside mounted heaters blasting warm air across their drive-thru windows... these run pretty much constant. Even some of the big box stores like Home Depot have heaters churning out heat in their outdoor lumber pick-up area. What a sad waste of natural gas and electricity. The retail industry is by far the largest waster of energy resources IMHO.

 

[BrownOut]

What annoys me are the utility companies chronically telling homeowners to take effective measures to reduce energy wasting, be it insulating, lowering room temps, reduce electrical use, etc. Then you go out into a town and notice that car dealer lots are over lighted, many stores/industrial shops leave way too many lights on when closed, have poor air-draft control, their HVAC systems run at full 24/7, water pipes/faucets dripping, and much more obvious neglect of needless energy wasting on their part. McDonald's newest buildings now have outside mounted heaters blasting warm air across their drive-thru windows... these run pretty much constant. Even some of the big box stores like Home Depot have heaters churning out heat in their outdoor lumber pick-up area. What a sad waste of natural gas and electricity. The retail industry is by far the largest waster of energy resources IMHO.

Good lord! People need outside heating! We've become fragile, delicate flowers and can't be inconvenienced to put on a jacket or deal with a little cold air! Comfort expectations aren't realistic in any way.

 

[Sceadwian]

I have a pet peeve. I have constantly heard from our government to cut down on paper usage as it kills trees which remove CO2 scrubbers and ultimately the paper can end up in a landfills.

To the best of my knowledge nearly all paper stock is made from farmed forests, it has to be or we'd have stripped the world naked of trees long ago. Also much of what paper is made out of is the castings off of other wood using processes. It's hard to find paper products that aren't made from at least partially recycled materials in the US now.

 

[tcmtech]

Hey now, I like my junk mail! I figure one years worth of it is equivalent to part of a good winter days heat for me! Add in all the other combustible stuff I have in my trash for a year and I have well over a weeks worth of home heat!

My local home building supply center has these green cloth bags you buy for a $1 and then get 10% off of what ever fits into it. It think its to promote green something or other so I buy one every time I have more than $10 worth of stuff so I can get the 10% discount and then take it home and toss it in the burnable trash with the rest of the misc shopping bags, boxes and plastic wrappers.

This going green stuff really does save a lot of money!
I wish more of the businesses would do the same bag deal!

 

[ghostman11]

personaly i like junk mail! we get huge ammounts of it on the farm and it is all shreaded up and used for bedding for any chicks we grow on or is mixed into the rabbit bedding keeps our costs for bedding down a little and once it is used we just put it on the compost heap

 

[Birdman Adam]

Great for starting my woodstove!

 

[fernando_g]

Shredded junk mail is also useful as cat litter.

When we had our cat spayed, the veterinarian told us to use this for a couple of weeks, instead of the normal "sand" to prevent infections.

Turns out she actually liked the stuff a lot.
I still have to use sand because the volume of junk mail has actually decreased...