You can help to reduce waste, and save yourself the nuisance of junk mail by following these simple steps.

1. Reduce unwanted addressed mail

Register with the Mailing Preference Service to reduce unwanted addressed marketing mail. Your name and address will be removed from up to 95% of direct marketing lists. You can also register previous occupiers.

• Telephone: 0845 703 4599
• Email: mps@dma.org.uk
• Website: www.mpsonline.org.uk

Once you have registered with the Mailing Preference Service it could take up to 4 months to have a full effect. You will still receive mail from companies that you specifically have dealings with e.g. insurance companies. If you want to stop mail from these organisations contact them directly and request to be removed from their database.

2. Reduce unaddressed junk mail

By sending your name and full address to the Royal Mail Door to Door service, you will stop receiving some unaddressed junk mail.

• Email: optout@royalmail.com
• Write to:
  Freepost RRBT-ZBXB-TTTS,
  Royal Mail Door to Door Opt Outs,
  Kingsmead House,
  Oxpens Road,
  OXFORD,
  OX1 1RX

Royal Mail will then send an opt-out form to your address, which you must sign and return. Once you've returned this form, Royal Mail will stop delivering unaddressed items to your address within 6 weeks.

3. Stop leaflets and flyers

Put a 'No junk mail please' sticker near your letterbox. This helps to stop the local junk mail that you tend to get in towns and cities, e.g. flyers and leaflets. To request a Jilt the junk mail pack with a free letterbox sticker phone Mission Impossible on 01905 766 883 or fill in our contact form and request one. (Herefordshire and Worcestershire residents only)

4. Avoid joining new mailing lists

Always tick the little boxes at the bottom of order forms, surveys and application forms that stops your name and address being sold to other companies. Tick the edited register option when completing the annual electoral register form. This will keep your details out of the publicly available register.

5. Leave mailing lists

Tell your insurance, credit card, banking and mortgage companies that you do not want to receive information about other services and ask them not to pass your details onto other companies. Write "Unsolicited Mail. Please return to sender" on unwanted items and put them in the post. The companies concerned will have to pay the return postage and will usually remove your details from their mailing lists.

6. Protect yourself from scams

Most scams, including prize draws and clairvoyant scams, are conducted through junk mail. By preventing junk mail coming into your home you are less likely to fall for a scam. For further information on scams visit the Trading Standards section of your local County Council website (for Worcestershire County Council Trading Standards click here).
To report a scam or find examples of a scam log on to www.consumerdirect.gov.uk

Other useful services and websites

• Telephone Preference Service: www.tpsonline.org.uk 0845 070 0707
• Fax Preference Service: www.fpsonline.org.uk 0845 070 0702
• The Direct Marketing Association: www.mydm.co.uk
• OPT-OUT of Junk Mail : www.stopjunkmail.org.uk

Envelope re-use stickers Try re-using envelopes before you compost, recycle or landfill them. Sticky labels made from recycled paper, are used to cover the old address and re-seal the envelope. These are widely available from many charities, so you can support a good cause at the same time.

To request a Jilt the junk mail pack with two free envelope re-use stickers phone Mission Impossible on 01905 766 883 or click here (Herefordshire and Worcestershire residents only)

About Junk Mail

550,000 tonnes of junk mail is generated in the UK every year. · The average U.K. household receives 224 pieces of junk mail every year, most of which ends up as waste! · Each year over 50 million items of junk mail are sent to the deceased in the U.K. Don't forget, if you do receive junk mail, it can be recycled through your kerbside recycling collection or at local recycling banks or scrunched up and composted at home.