I mentioned that it was possible to set up filters on incoming postal mail. I haven’t done this yet, but apparently the way to do this is via USPS DMM 508 §8.1.1, which says that “an addressee who receives a solicited or unsolicited advertisement offering for sale matter that, in the addressee’s sole discretion, is ‘erotically arousing or sexually provocative,’ may, by completing Form 1500, obtain a prohibitory order directing the mailer of the advertisement to refrain from making further mailings to that addressee.”

The key is that it’s “in the addressee’s sole discretion”. So if you claim that those credit card offers are just too arousing, the Post Office won’t disagree with you. Apparently, the Supreme Court has upheld that this even includes a “dry goods catalog” if the addressee wants (although I haven’t independently verified the existence of the court case referenced on that site).

I just find this an amusing approach to the problem. I may try it out sometime and report how it goes.

When I don’t outright refuse junk mail, sometimes I’ll take some of the junk mail I’ve received, remove personally identifying information from it, and stuff it into the next available Business Reply Mail (postage will be paid by addressee) junk mail return envelope I find, and drop it in the mail. I hope to exceed the one ounce limit so that they need to pay extra postage.

I’m just very sick of junk mail. I don’t allow random offers from companies to show up in my email box, so why should I need to deal with them in my postal mail box? Unfortunately, setting up filters on your physical mail box is much more difficult than setting them up on an email box. (It is possible, however, and I plan to do so in the near future if I continue to get more junk as companies discover our address.)