The Race against Waste: Some horses funked the fences

by John Fitz Thu May 01, 2008 17:56

Minimising Waste
Quote Lara Hill Fri Sep 16, 2005 15:34 0861717726

"a couple of months ago I copied your e-mail template and sent it to all the addresses you suggested. I got an encouraging response from all the agencies either by e-mail or phone acknowledging my request. Despite this, the Golden Pages and the Eircom phonebook were delivered to my flat".

Never too late to follow up Lara. Remind them by just replying to their replies and insisting on action. They must collect them. Ask for a refund the 12 Euro it cost to produce them. CC the minister for the environment- minister@environ.ie

by Lara Hill Fri Sep 16, 2005 15:34 0861717726
Another little action I did a few months ago has been more successful. I made a small notice 'NO JUNKMAIL, NO TAKEAWAY MENUS, NO BROCHURES, NO LEAFLETS/FLIERS' in red and black letters on white card. I put it in a little clear plastic bag to waterproof it and stuck it beside my letterbox; it's worked! Since then I've received less than 5 fliers.

Now that's an good idea. Imitatiion is the best form of flattery so I'm cogging your idea.

There's another junk problem- An Post is now accepting junk mail. NTL is a key offender. I've returned many mailshots to them marked JUNK MAIL but they continue to send. I now have 11 items from NTL which I'm returning to An Post with instructions not to accept further licenced mail from NTL for my address. More later

by Lara Hill Fri Sep 16, 2005 15:34 0861717726

I really liked your idea of stopping the delivery of phone directories to minimise waste. So a couple of months ago I copied your e-mail template and sent it to all the addresses you suggested. I got an encouraging response from all the agencies either by e-mail or phone acknowledging my request. Despite this, the Golden Pages and the Eircom phonebook were delivered to my flat. I was really angry and frustrated. I guess I should have followed it up with the agencies, but I just gave up and recycled the old books.

Another little action I did a few months ago has been more successful. I made a small notice 'NO JUNKMAIL, NO TAKEAWAY MENUS, NO BROCHURES, NO LEAFLETS/FLIERS' in red and black letters on white card. I put it in a little clear plastic bag to waterproof it and stuck it beside my letterbox; it's worked! Since then I've received less than 5 fliers. I rang up one company (a car valeting service) to complain that they had ignored my request. I also took the opportunity to share my anti-car culture views. He told me to fuck off and hung up. I wouldn't mind but twice on his unsolicited flier he highlighted how proffesional his service was. Anyway this was one small set back in an otherwise successful action and I'd recommend it to anyone trying to reduce paper waste

by John Fitz Tue Apr 12, 2005 01:58

Postscript
If you want the The Independent Directory, collected,ring 01 4112000 or email info@indocom.ie,

This waste reduction will reduce GNP a little but there's scope for much more. Think about it!

Maybe growth isn't all it's cracked up to be.

What these actions do is to stop people making money out of waste production so others can make money out of waste disposal & then we can all be overjoyed by the growth in the economy. Yes we need to consider the implications

by sir ann toe knee o raghaillaigh Sun Apr 10, 2005 15:49

Think of it as a small contribution to ensure lucrative advertising revenues for me and my ilk .... surely you can afford the sacrifice .....

by Sef Sun Apr 10, 2005 15:27

It's amazing that UCD might recieve ten thousand phone books a year. That's probably one for every office, all of which would have computers on UCDs local area network. We might think that they'd just make a digital phone book available on their LAN, reduce the number of phone books to a couple of hundred and save fifty something thousand a year.

It lacks imagination that no one has thought of this before when the entire university is being restructured to save money.

by john fitz Wed Apr 06, 2005 19:36

I agree but If people dont use them then they're ineffective- just a hunk of junk. Why should we pay 12 Euro for that?

by James Gaffney Wed Apr 06, 2005 02:08 gaf1983 at campus dot ie Limerick

I support the general idea of reducing the amount of phonebooks printed each year. However, one reason why Eircom/O2/The Golden Pages might be against a reduction is that a decrease in the circulation of the phonebooks might lead to a decrease in their advertising revenue.