I’ve had a no flyers sign for decades now, and was one of those who pressured Canada Post to honour it.

There are a surprising number of problems, though. No community newspaper even if you want one - they are unaddressed and mostly distributed by junk mail delivery services. No municipal notices such as garbage pickup schedules or even of local water main work. I get some election notices, but not all - some canvassers consider themselves to be exempt, others don’t.

We need to define a term that includes government info but not the advertising junk we’re trying to stop. I’m working on the City of Ottawa to try to correct their problem, but we really need a national definition that people can forward to their local governments.

I have been a leter carrier for 24 years and I am always telling people if they don’t want to receive junk mail just put a sign on their mailbox and most carriers will not deliver junk mail to them. Why don’t you come up with a flyer that you can peel off and stick to the mailbox that says “NO CANADA POST FLYERS”. 99% of the carriers will respect this as we hate to deliver flyers as much as people hate to receive them.

I put out the “Dear Canada Post Letter Carrier” letter yesterday, along with the “NO JUNK MAIL” on the RED DOT sign. Both were taken by the letter carrier. Today I come home through a snowstorm to find my ADDRESSED mail sitting in snow on the floor of my front porch (with the “NO JUNK MAIL” sign wrapped inside it) and the unaddressed flyers in my mailbox. I’d say this is a not-so-subtle sign of anger on the part of my letter carrier. If it’s a one time event, I can deal. If it persists I guess I’ll need to report it, but I don’t want an escalating conflict with my letter carrier!! Has anyone else had this experience? Suggestions??

Heard about your campaign and first thought was- must be a motive. Then read about your business and motive was confirmed. As a businessman I deplore your actions.
I’m also a real estate broker and we use Canada Post to target areas at 100% coverage. If your campaign reduces the amount of houses we can target, not only will we continue to use Canada Post, but we’ll hire students to deliver the same flyers to the same areas. (all a tax write off) Others I have talked to that use Canada Post have said they’ll do the same, so in affect you’re just going to cause more advertising to be produced. Waitago in your thinking process, hope you’re a bit more intelligent in your own business ideas.

Keep up the awareness program. Every time I get this junk mail I wonder how many trees had to die for this useless information. I agree with the letter carrier (moslenko)that a lable and a letter explaining the process would be benifical as many people (elderly etc.) don’t have a computor or printer. It seems people won’t take the time or effort to lable their mail box if it isn’t a easy process. I have stopped my delivery of junk mail with a sigh on my mail box

The City of Ottawa passed a bylaw 4 years ago:

BY-LAW NO. 2003 - 493
A by-law of the City of Ottawa to establish a program for the regulation of the distribution of unaddressed advertising material.
6. No distributor shall distribute or cause to be distributed any unaddressed advertising material on private property if the owner or occupant of the property has affixed a sign in a conspicuous
way on his or her own property, as prescribed in accordance with Schedule “A” to this by-law indicating that he or she does not wish to receive any unaddressed advertising material.
10. The affixing of a sign does not apply to prevent the distribution of:
newspapers delivered to paid subscribers;
community newspapers;
material produced in the context of a campaign for elected office; or
information circulars produced by governments or their agencies.

My mail carrier won’t take the letters but seems to have stopped delivering junk. Yay!

Sorry, I can find instructions or how to add to this blog! I hope you don’t mind I am using your comment area; they go to the heart of regulating unaddressed mail. Consider:

• The waste Yellow Pages and their counterparts produce is almost criminal. Due to business requirements, I have three phone numbers in one address location. Telus and Yellow Pages insist on sending me two phone directories per phone number – that is 6 phone directories! I have called them multiple times to complain to no avail. In an age where most people access information on the Internet, it is sad to see the pile of new directories thrown out every seasonal delivery period.

• The Courier newspaper is a free paper that delivers twice a week. For years I have had a continual fight asking them not to deliver to my home. The house next door is vacant and piles of paper heap at the front door from irresponsible deliveries. This is something continuously being repeated throughout cities across the country. These are periodicals that most people don’t want and, without reading, throw away. How long are we going to turn a blind eye to this waste?

• Promotional flyers and unsolicited seasonal catalogues from realtors, community colleges, grocery chains, department stores, and big box outlets sent on a regular basis are a terrible waste. Most people throw these out and often without even reading them. If we all take a united stand and call attention to these irresponsible actions we will make a real difference in a world that is crying out for one.

Ann Gonzalez

I’m a Carrier. I always honor no junk signs. But please note. There are alot of temps that work at Canada Post. So if your Carrier is on holidays, sick, etc.. it could be anyone doing your route. Also, some routes are in limbo. Meaning nobody wants to own the route for whatever reason (too long). So it just keeps getting flipped from Temp to Temp. or passed off for over-time to be covered by other Carriers, etc.

Notice how hard its to find any policy about No Junk Mail on Canada Post’s web site? Its even harder to get a straight answer internally as an Employee. I know whats up because I’ve been doing it for 13 years. But the new Carriers have no Idea. They don’t know if they should Honor or not. If I ask my boss…. I get 5 different answers depending which Supervisor I ask.

So please don’t get angry at your Carriers. They really don’t have a clear understanding of what to do. Honor a sign, wait for a letter in combination with a sign, or wait for a supervisor to take action.. Its just not clear.

I spoke with two different people at the City of Toronto’s garbage and recycling department and they both told me that the City of Toronto delivers garbage pick-up calendars, et cetera by itself and not via Canada Post.

Thus Canada Post’s blatant and annoying threat not to deliver potentially important municipal mail is a non-issue in Toronto.

The spokesperson’s threat that people would be deprived of important information because they care about the environment is completely unacceptable.

I have sent in the stop junk mail form to the Canada Post and put up a stop junk mail sticker on the mailbox for over a week now. As of today, I still receive junk mail. What can be done to address this?!

Quick note for Ron the real estate businessman,

Think about what you’re saying for a second. People have gone out of their way to get rid of a product they don’t want based on their own personal beliefs. You would then go out of your way to find an alternate means to give them something that they have already taken steps to confirm they DON’T want? You will only further alienate those people using outdated methods like door to door flyers and post cards, why not just poke them with a stick and really annoy them?

Waitago in your thinking process, how can that possibly seem like well utilized advertising resources? Maybe putting an ad in a community newspaper would be smarter, it will still get delivered to the people who have opted out and you will demonstrate connections to your community and not have the negative association of being one of those paper spammers. The community paper gets a little more revenue and you still get your precious tax write-off. I’m pretty sure that’s called a win-win proposition.

My printed up ‘No Junk Mail Please’ notice to my postal carrier with my address has been sitting in my mailbox for a month now. I am just waiting to see how long it takes the mail carrier to respond. I have also included a notice on the mailroom bulletin board. So, maybe one day!

My postal carrier has not picked up my letter (Left it out for 2 weeks) I mailed it to Canada Post but have not received any answer. I still get junk mail, even more than before. 4 to 6 per day. I am FED UP. I just read a post by a carrier that says to print a sticker that says NO CANADA POST JUNK MAIL. That’s what I am going to put beside the NO JUNK MAIL RED DOT. I am still convinced though that it will not help any and that It won’t stop the junk mail from being delivered as usual.

Personally, if it were up to me, I would ask that every body mail it back (just drop it in Canada Post mail boxes) every day. Let them see how much they would like to have to sort our mail through the junk. That is what I intend to do soon if they don’t respect my right to ask for NO junk mail.

I am still waiting to get rid of th junk mail in my box. 2 months ago I put a red dot on my mailbox and left the letter requesting consumer choice for my letter carrier. The junk mail kept flowing in! I called Canada Post customer service and they put me in contact with the local sorting station who left me a message back telling me to put a red dot on my box and leave a letter for my letter carrier. Round two, left another letter last week and for the first few days no junk mail came. Today, however I was disappointed to reach into my box and there was all of last week’s worth! I was not community flyers delivered by another carrier it was clearly Canada Post unaddressed admail. What to do now???

Hold it ,hold it Postie! I am a letter carrier who has just been terminated for doing exactly what the Canada Post Red Dot Policy requires. Canada Post has many letter carriers terrified to persue the Red Dot Policy for fear of dismissal. At my “interview” a superintendent said” what if all letter carriers did this?” Quite clearly Canada Post is more concerned about prifit than service and following their own policy. So if you are still recieving ad mail Canada Post is no doubt more culpable than the letter carrier.

Signs or Red Dots don’t work. The only way to get rid off the unaddressed admail is to send an email (visit canada post website) simply tell them to stop unaddressed admail and within a couple days you will notice a difference and if the first email doesn’t work try again IT WORKS. Visit http://www.stopjunkmail.ca for more information I found the site extremely helpful.

Thank you Postie— I was re-instated 2 days before arbitration, but am now retired. I am taking legal action against Canada Post regarding my settlement and possibly civil action due to a violation of my employee rights when I was terminated. They are evil!!!

You have brought up an interesting topic. The big mailers want ad mail delivered and are willing to pay for the service. Some citizens do not want ad mail. According to Canada Post’s Consumer Choice Option they ( the public) have the right to refuse ad mail. It’s not the letter carrier that makes the decision, it’s Canada Post allowing the public to refuse ad mail. However Canada Post has terminated letter carriers for advising uninformed citizens of the Consumers Choice Option, in particular, how it works. This is hypocratical. !! One superintendent said following an interview “what if all letter carriers did that” ( answer questions on how to stop ad mail) the response was “there would be a lot of happy customers” The letter carrier was terminated. Clearly profits are more important than service, regardless of what Canada Post SAYS.