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GreenDimes stops your junk mail
GreenDimes provides a service that happens to be good for you and good for the environment: they stop your junk mail. They’re not the only service that promises to do this, but the difference is that GreenDimes actually stops your junk mail. This is not as simple a feat as it sounds. The people at GreenDimes have a lot of insider knowledge about how list marketing works, knowledge they put to work on your behalf. Not only do they get your name of the lists, but as long as you’re a member they actively work to ensure that your name stays off of lists. If you ever quit their service, they submit your name to twice as many lists as you were on before. Joking! They absolutely do not do this. Bad Adam. Not funny. Stopping junk mail is good for the environment. About 100 million trees and 28 billion gallons of water go into a year’s worth of American junk mail, to say nothing of the energy used carting this stuff around. And stopping junk mail is good for you. In addition to being a nuisance, junk mail is a major source of identity theft. Here’s the “but wait there’s more!” part: for every month that you’re a member of GreenDimes, the company plants a tree on your behalf. We don’t fund tree-planting projects here at TerraPass, but that’s only because we don’t think they’re the best source of carbon offsets. We like trees and are fully behind GreenDimes’ efforts, because they aren’t an offsetting company.
Tags: Environmental services, GreenDimes
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Comments
The DMA does offer to remove your from mailing lists, but I haven’t heard many positive thing said about how well this works. 3.
Comment by resolution girl
@ Feb 21, 2007 5 AM
 I joined Greendimes when I bought a Terrapass (New Year’s resolution time!) I found them through the link on the Terrapass newsletter. I have been very pleased with the reduction of junk mail, even in less than 2 months. Also, my interactions with their people have been pleasant and reassuring. They are a good marketing partner for Terrapass, and a good companion for the Terrapass owner. For a dime a day, it’s definitely worth it. 4.
Comment by Emily
@ Feb 21, 2007 5 AM
I signed up for Green Dimes and had a bad experience. They have a very short list of catalogs from which to choose, so every time you have a catalog, you have to email them the information. In addition, they don’t ask for your customer number, so the likelihood of being removed is slim. It’s easier for me to just call the company directly and make sure I’m removed. Plus, once they do this for one customer, they don’t add the catalog to the list. It’s very inefficient and makes me question their processes and business model. I would be surprised if they lasted. I went to Green Dimes because I liked the idea of planting trees. “Stop the junk mail” is much better. I used it years ago, but have since moved and the junk mail is building back up. I’ll send the money directly to national arbor day foundation or amfor. If you must have someone do it for you, go to stopthejunkmail.com. 5.
Comment by dharma bum
@ Feb 21, 2007 8 AM
I joined GreenDimes a few months ago, and, while I’m not quite ready to pass final judgment on them just yet, if I were put on the spot I’d have to recommend not using their service. The fundamental reason for signing up for GreenDimes is to reduce your junk mail, of course, and I have yet to see any appreciable reduction in ours. In fact, since joining GreenDimes we have begun receiving quite a few catalogs which we had never received before in our lives, leading me to believe that somehow GreenDimes accidentally added our names to some list out there in the marketing world. Adam says that the “people at GreenDimes have a lot of insider knowledge about how list marketing works, knowledge they put to work on your behalf,” but I’m not sure this is entirely true. They are a very recent start-up, and I get the feeling that they are (like many start-ups) learning on the fly. For instance, when I joined they sent me a notice that catalog companies often create their mailing lists “2-3 months” in advance so I should be patient while watching for a reduction in my catalog volume. Then, a couple of months later, I received a notice detailing how some catalogs pre-print their mailing labels “1 year in advance,” so I’d better be really patient. In other words, my one-year membership might expire before I see maximum benefits (I suppose the implication is that I’d better renew, huh?). They also promised a much-enhanced website by mid-January; it was just launched in the last couple of days. And with the new site, they are springing at least one dirty surprise. You used to be able to add up to four additional names to the account as long as they shared the same address (so that, for instance, both spouses would stop receiving junk mail). Considering that you are paying $36/year for a service that you can actually perform yourself for free, including the entire household seemed, to me, to be an expected feature, not some bonus. However, now they are charging $3/year for each additional name (including variations on your own name). That alone might be the deal-breaker for me. Not to mention that if you add one or two names, the “GreenDimes” concept—it costs a dime a day—doesn’t apply anymore! Finally in the not-entirely-on-top-of-it category, the CEO of GreenDimes does not inspire confidence at all with the incredibly poorly written e-mails he sends out. As his messages prove, it’s definitely worth it to take a business writing class or two along the way. On the plus side, their customer service is incredibly friendly and usually helpful. That’s always a nice characteristic for a company but it doesn’t do much to make up for all the problems about which you are having to contact customer service in the first place. This could be a great service, and I hope they finally get it all together (and stop adding surcharges). Perhaps even in time for me to renew my membership this Fall. 6.
Comment by Meagen
@ Feb 21, 2007 10 AM
i signed up for green dimes and although i’m not receiving credit card ads any more, i’m receiving handmade tibetan prayer flags and other non-profit fundraising gimmicks every day. still waiting for my paper recycling bin to stop filling. Hello all, Hi Global Green Sharia, Hi Resolution Girl Hi Emily, Hi Dharma bum, Hi Meagen - It is good to hear that the unsolicited credit card mailers have stopped. For nonprofits, you will need to let us know which ones you receive mailings from using the catalogs tab. Thanks to all the readers and bloggers, and especially Adam for sharing GreenDimes with the Terrapass community. Check out our testamonials for more member comments about the GreenDimes service. 8.
Comment by Ramsey Fahel
@ Feb 22, 2007 3 PM
Do Not Mail Opt-Out Law would be fair to everyone.
The US Supreme Court said in the Rowan case in 1970, “In today’s [1970] complex society we are inescapably captive audiences for many purposes, but a sufficient measure of individual autonomy must survive to permit every householder to exercise control over unwanted mail. To make the householder the exclusive and final judge of what will cross his threshold undoubtedly has the effect of impeding the flow of ideas, information, and arguments that, ideally, he should receive and consider. Today’s merchandising methods, the plethora of mass mailings subsidized by low postal rates, and the growth of the sale of large mailing lists as an industry in itself have changed the mailman from a carrier of primarily private communications, as he was in a more leisurely day, and have made him an adjunct of the mass mailer who sends unsolicited and often unwanted mail into every home. It places no strain on the doctrine of judicial notice to observe that whether measured by pieces or pounds, Everyman’s mail today is made up overwhelmingly of material he did not seek from persons he does not know. And all too often it is matter he finds offensive.” Furthermore, the Supreme Court said, “the mailer’s right to communicate is circumscribed only by an affirmative act of the addressee giving notice that he wishes no further mailings from that mailer. To hold less would tend to license a form of trespass and would make hardly more sense than to say that a radio or television viewer may not twist the dial to cut off an offensive or boring communication and thus bar its entering his home. Nothing in the Constitution compels us to listen to or view any unwanted communication, whatever its merit; we see no basis for according the printed word or pictures a different or more preferred status because they are sent by mail.” We need a nationwide “Do Not Mail” law to create a one-stop, convenient place for homeowners to give senders the aforementioned affirmative notice that we do not want certain kinds of mail sent to our homes. www.nomorejunkmail.org
9.
Comment by Aaron A.
@ Feb 23, 2007 6 PM
If I joined GreenDimes, can I exclude those credit card offers? There’s something about the words “You’re Pre-Approved!” that make me feel warm and fuzzy all over. No, I’m kidding. If your service works nearly as well as you and RezGirl say, I’m all for it. I just hope you’re taking better care of your trees than Coldplay did. 10.
Comment by m\
@ Feb 23, 2007 8 PM
greendimes constantly remove you and double check to make sure you are removed monthly… google DMA only removes you once 11.
Comment by worrier
@ Mar 13, 2007 7 AM
I’m new to this site and blog so if this has been mentioned before, just ignore me. While tallying up our carbon footprint re:home energy usage, does this include the volume of water used?
Worrier — The energy used to heat your home water is included in the tally, because this will be reflected in your utility bills. The energy used to extract and transport the water to your house is not included, although I imagine this is very small portion of the total energy footprint of your house. 13.
Comment by Ramsey Fahel
@ Mar 16, 2007 6 PM
US Postal Service won’t let you refuse mail.
In practical application, since the postal carrier comes to homes at different times each day, the homeowner cannot be waiting at the mailbox to dialogue with the mail carrier about each mailpiece. The only realistic way to interpret 508.1.1.2 therefore is that the homeowner should post a notice on the mailbox telling the postal carrier about the homeowner’s preference. The notice to the postal service must be specific and unambiguous. For instance, a homeowner should certainly be able to write, “No mail that is not addressed to the Jones” because that does not require the postal carrier to make a subjective judgment. On the other hand, it would not be acceptable to write “no junk mail” because the definition of “junk mail” is subjective and the mail carrier cannot decide.
Unfortunately, the US Postal Service has written to me that they will NOT honor a notice refusing mail, not matter how specifically it is worded, because the postal carrier does not have time to sort through the mail at my mailbox to pick out the pieces that are not addressed to me. Therefore, the US Postal Service is passing their sorting and disposing task onto me by putting all the mail they want into my mailbox, even though this seemingly violates 508.1.1.2.
Since the U.S. Postal Service will not abide by 508.1.1.2, homeowners need to stop unwanted mail at the source (i.e. by blocking the sender from sending it). We need a nationwide “Do Not Mail” law to create a one-stop, convenient place for homeowners to give senders notice that we do not want certain kinds of mail sent to our homes.
http://www.newdream.org/emails/ta19.html
Signed, Ramsey A Fahel I have no real complaints with the GreenDimes service so far, though I haven’t yet noticed an appreciable reduction in junk mail yet (member since January 2007). Nevertheless I have a couple concerns. First, unlike TerraPass, whose “results can be verified by an independent third party,” I have to simply trust GreenDimes that 225,000 pounds of junk mail have been stopped. Second, I was left scratching my head when I read about the advisory board that was created for Tonic (the company that runs the greendimes service). For some reason, all ten of the advisory board members are closely linked with the entertainment industry. Though I don’t necessarily have an issue with the entertainment industry, this selection is not at all what I expected, and the oddity of it makes me wonder about the legitimacy of the underlying service. Does anyone have a reassuring explanation?
Not a clue, although it looks like they’ve reorganized into a parent company, Tonic, that runs the GreenDimes service. My guess is that their strategic direction will involve media. Your best bet, though, is to ask them directly. Post a commentSearch the TerraPass blogTurn your old cellphones and PDAs into a FREE TerraPass. |
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You’ve perhaps noticed the link to 
It’s actually quite kwik-n-easy to reduce your volume of junk snail-mail, for FREE!
Google DMA (Direct Marketing Assn. of America). After a little BS and mailing back the stuff, there you go. For Free.
I tried it, it works, and that’s how I know this post will probably not appear at this site… >;)
It won’t reduce all of it, but it is FREE.
“Here’s the “but wait there’s more!” part: for every month that you’re a member of GreenDimes, the company plants a tree on your behalf”
. Heh. I like that part. Definitely bookmarkable. :)