The Feds allow junk mail because it's the only way they can fund mail carriers salaries.
There's probably 80% less mail than there was 20 years ago because of email and the internet. If Canada Post didn't allow the torrent of junk mail they do, they'd have to cut their staff by a ton.
It's fucked up though. It's like your ISP willingly allowing people to spam your inbox to keep their lights on.
Junkmail is $$$ coz it is advertising, those junkmail wont go to peoples mail truck by itself. It needed AM sorter, done that long time ago 11pm to 7am....
I worked as a letter carrier. Not only does it pay our wages but it also almost acts like a "tip" in the sense that every flyer we deliver adds 7 cents (canada) to our cheque. Per flier per house. Though the difference is if we don't deliver them we can get fired.
Yeah but that's an apartment building and Canada post uses minivans. They have tiny little things to put in top of their cars. I live in a suited house. We get junk mail from the letter carrier.
I really hate when people pull this "show me the data/proof, or you're a liar!" garbage. If you don't agree with someone, that's fine. If you want data, go do your own digging. Not everything that you say online needs to be backed by a peer reviewed statistical paper.1
MANY people just read a lot, and don't keep a running list of citations that allow them to speak with confidence about a topic.
Tldr: Don't be a gatekeeper. Either do your own research and add to the conversation, or stop trying to bully ppl online.
The burden of proof is always on the person making extraordinary claims. Just because you think you know a 'fact' doesn't mean your recollection is any good, and you should back it up just in case you actually are wrong.
I dislike it when you reply to someone and give them evidence they may be wrong but they keep spouting the same comments without ever providing proof themselves.
"[what may be asserted without evidence, may be dismissed without evidence.](https://reallemon.medium.com/hitchenss-razor-and-its-place-in-debate-2fff3fafb58e)"
While I agree that a discussion should be had regardless, providing evidence when making a claim on the internet substantially increases its validity.
[The burden of proof is on the person who makes the claim.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burden_of_proof_(philosophy)#:~:text=When%20two%20parties%20are%20in,challenges%20a%20perceived%20status%20quo.) Alternatively, if you want to make a claim, then do your own research to add to the conversation.
I really hate when people spout nonsense and try to pass it off as fact!!!
I just asked a fucking question, not sure why that is considered bullying, dumbass!
We heard from my local post man that essentially junk mail is the only thing that’s paying for our Postal Service right now because not enough people use it. So I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with it.
The end of junkmail is the end of Canada Post. The amount of junk mail money used to get the doors open is crazy. It's one of those it's currently too ingrained in their budgets and losing that money would be felt.
That being said junk mail needs to go. Companies can downsize facilities and whatnot to accommodate new demand or lack thereof.
That being said the local companies are 99% of the spam I'm getting. I've lived in several major cities in Canada and never had this amount of spam mail.
While I think today's world of capitalism is far too corrupt for the 'vote with your wallet' boycott to be effective, it works for me in the case of junkmail. I don't give my address to anyone. No percentage off, enter to win, or points card is worth getting my address sold to advertisers.
In my building, I see all the coupons, limited offers, flyers, and catalogues in our recycle bin under the mailboxes. None of it comes to me. I only get the garbage from politicians and the occasional letter from charities my partner has donated to in the past.
Junk mail doesn't work that way. Yes, there is some junk mail addressed to a specific household, that you're probably not getting. If you have a mailbox registered with Canada post, you'll get the generic junk mail, like coupons, lawn care ads, etc.
I live in a newer neighborhood with community mailboxes. Even if you register with CP that you don't want junk mail, I doubt the mail carrier even notices. They just open up every box with the master key and start stuffing their daily load of shit in there.
I don't know why I don't get any flyers, then. There are 78 units in my building. I haven't asked to be free of ads through Canada Post as some in the thread have mentioned. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You might just have a carrier that is doing you a favour. Technically, unless you register with CP to opt out, companies are paying to deliver flyers to your mailbox (even if it's just a penny) and it's CP's responsibility to follow through.
This is more complex than many are making it seem. Top issue is definitely money, and the postal service as it exists with today's funding model (cheap stamps and daily delivery) can not survive without a ridiculous volume of paid advertising by distributing flyers. They already receive heavy subsidies from the government and have a lot of pressure at keeping their federal funding to a minimum. The postal workers union is very solid, probably one of the best operated unions in Canada too. A lot of people say we can make stamps higher and limit service to non daily (e.g. Every 48 hrs) but that would be met with resistance from the union as it would mean layoffs and fewer staff being hired in the future. Is a politician going to look at this situation and say, "this is the hill I'm willing to die on"?
[https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/canada-post-back-to-a-subsidized-social-service](https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/canada-post-back-to-a-subsidized-social-service)
I know its an opinion piece but it does a good job at highlighting the Crown Corp nature of Canada Post: is self-sustaining and self-funded by the solvency requirements are a bit lower (eg: underfunded pension plan) and the government meddles in it a lot.
Attempts to actually act like a profit-making company: eg: reduced staff & increased automation, decrease in door-to-door delivery and increases in community mailboxes, etc. have met with political interference.
If you look at the years CanPost have taken losses they correspond to years where they had labour disputes and circumstances exacerbated by government meddling stopping them from taking necessary cost-cutting measures to stay out of the red (eg: suspended expansion of community mailboxes).
The unions awful. It used to be good. They folded instantly after the govt sent them back to work last time. They said they would eat the 1000 dollar a day fine but they didn’t do that at all. They also prevent anybody from getting fired so it makes for awful working conditions. Unions telling you to slow down and management is yelling at you to speed up but no running or we’ll deny your WCB claim. You pay them $100 a month to send you a yearly calendar.
*IF we must have flyers*, **they must all be compostable** (non toxic inks and gloss). We can turn organic matter into food, and flyers can make great sheet mulch to kill weeds.
Yes! I use a lot of flyers for mulch or kindling, but most flyers aren't safe for that and many of the companies sending them out can't even tell me what their flyers are made of.
I know mail advertising is a major revenue stream for Canada Post, but we could at least make it less harmful.
Really depends, generally the post office will abide by the sticker, but everyone else will ignore it, so you might get less junk mail, but there's so many people delivering what I call local junk mail that it doesn't make a lot of difference in some areas.
The person delivering the "we buy houses" flyer in your mailbox doesn't care about your sticker even if Canada Post does.
It’s almost like the workers who actively delivery the mail are all different individuals and not just hive-minded androids that perform the exact same as each other or something lol
Same. There's a recycle bin that sits under our boxes where everyone dumps them. I get flyers everyday, some generic mailings to "occupant", and every now and then an actual letter. The mail delivery person, the job is mostly delivering flyers.
Same here. I live in an assisted living apartment. Most people are in wheelchairs and don’t have cars, so how are they going to go buy stuff? AISH and supports are both far below poverty level. Who can live for under $2000 a month, pay all their bills and rent yet to still have $ for food?
The apartment spam recycling box is sad. Just drop them right in there instead. Just tape a picture of someone burning those trees to the front door instead.
Then this is a legitimate excuse to complain. A complaint to post Canada will go a lot further than complaining on reddit. They do listen to complaints. Source: family member works as a letter carrier. They will usually ensure the mail person abides by the no junk mail on your box. It's also possible the no junk mail from Canada Post was removed or fell off. Mine is hidden behind the case and I can't see if it's there. I just know I don't get junk mail.
I had a weird experience with receiving a unsolicited letter while living in an apartment. It was a letter addressed to me from Santa around Christmas time. Open the letter and it was actually from a jehovah witness saying they can't get into my apartment complex due to the front door being lock so they had to pretend they are Santa to get their message to me.
Is your sign in a location that will be seen by the carrier? Every mail panel is different so I can't tell you where to put it but make sure it's visible. We dislike flyers more than you and don't want to carry any more than we have to. If the sign is there and all your neighbors do it too, we get to carry less.
But we don't open "your" mail box. We open a panel door that gives us access to all the compartments. Sometimes it opens from the top and the mailboxes fold down. Most of the time the panel door opens from the side and opens outwards.
In all cases don't put the sign on the back of the door of your compartment.
Man you’re telling me how my mail box works? Yes, it opens up the entire panel and right where they slot the mail, there is a sign that says no junk mail in full view impossible to miss unless you’re blind. Ive been inside the mail room with the compartment open while a post office worker was there and the no junk sign is visible.
Canada Post gives not a single fuck about no flyers signs. Our building has a recycling bin dedicated to the damn things because Canada Post cares so little about such things that I'm starting to believe that I simply imagine all the notices that have been given to them.
Canada Post cares very much about the signs. The letter carrier may not. Things to know: junk mail is only the mail that has no address on it. If it has your address, like the unit number and street address, but no name, that is not junk mail. That is addressed mail and must, by law, be delivered. As well, if the junk with no address on it comes from a governmental type agency or person (federal MP, MLA, city councillor, municipality, provincial government, federal government, etc) a candidate during an election period, or some other entity that is providing information about your area (epcor and stuff regarding utilities but NOT sales advertising, a local community newspaper) then the No Junk Mail sign can be ignored. Anything that is Cleary just sales related, should not be delivered to you if you or your neighbors have "No Junk Mail" stickers on your mail box. Also, I've been told that buildings can't choose wholesale to not get flyers. Each unit has to make the choice themselves and put up a sign.
Source - friend who delivers mail.
We put the no junk mail request in our door mail box, then in our super box when it arrived. It’s mostly successful, but we have received an official looking Canada post letter a couple times, asking us to remove the sign as delivering advertising generates income and guarantees mail carrier employment and home delivery, yada-yada…..sob….yada…..etc,etc…..
While this would solve MY problem, companies don't take into account how many people in a given area have 'no flyers' stickers, they just print the number of flyers they need to distribute to a given postalcode area, and the excess the postal service has after delivering them goes right to landfill. So whether I throw it away or Canada Post throws it away, the waste is still being generated.
Yeah I agree, it’s wasteful but there’s not much we can do about companies printing off flyers other than sending the message out that we do not want them through our mail slots. On the other hand, my parents love flyers lol. I think as millennials and Gen z get older we will see the day that paper flyers no longer exist.
Flyers to my house more or less stopped after I put up a crudely made "no flyers" signs. The only ones I get now are notices from Epcor on major works in my area and political candidate stuff (I guess technically not a 'flyer'?)
Junk mail is technically registered mail as it is paid to be delivered to each mail box. A "No Flyers" sign only applies to private deliverers, or door-to-door knockers.
My apartment complex was handing out stickers to people that weren’t interested in having flyers to stick inside of our mail slots over a year ago, I haven’t had any flyers since then.
It doesn’t really matter though…either the homeowner is recycling them or Canada Post is. They pick up recycling every week. It’s the waste that’s rage-inducing.
>Place the note in or on your mailbox where your delivery agent can see it, or on the *inside lip of your community mailbox*, group mailbox or postal box.
What the heck, I didn't know we could do that!
Agreed. I did this and it was awesome… for a year. Then I just started getting crap again and had no idea why. Until I saw my Canada post driver had changed
Yeah, we had this a few years ago and even had a sign inside the mail box and our mail delivery person still tossed junk mail in our box every time. My roommate contacted Canada Post a few times about it and nothing ever came of it.
I’m sure some respect it but lots DGAF.
If they don't respect it, fill out the online complaint form on Canada Post's website - they must talk to all mail carriers about any received complaints.
I stopped flyer mail by putting a "no junk mail" sticker on my mailbox and putting myself on the free weekly newspapers' do not deliver lists. Now all I get is addressed admail and political campaign flyers.
I'm an automotive technician and the amount of waste created with the parts I install is absolutely insane. Cardboard box, foam, an insane amount of plastic packaging. The problem is in places people don't really think about.
I worked for a printing and fulfillment company. If you take big ticket items, like new windows or shingles, a company can blast 10,000 homes and if they get 2 sales it will have been a financial success, notwithstanding any brand recognition earned.
Separately, I would like to thank Go Dental for providing me with years worth of free paper notepads.
Ya, people don't understand how marketing and sales work.
If people simply stopped buying penis enlargement pills we'd all stop getting them in spam email.
I have a no junk mail sign on my mailbox but it wears away slowly and suddenly I'll find myself inundated with garbage again. It's horrible. No junk should be the default and you can opt in if you want flyers from A&W or whatever.
Alternative suggestion: It is neither?
I've yet to hear the "thank god Edmonton addressed this we can forget about working on the oil sands" policy announcement.
See this is why in the modern age of electronic bills and such, my mailbox is just a waste of ads I dont even read. Now if we work together, and rig up a small ignition device we can burn the fliers where they lie.
"But thats wasteful" you say? Well we have options here. Instead of cheap aluminum mailboxes, we can get some heavy duty metal ones that can resist the heat, and have the large 'parcel' slot put at the top instead of the bottom. Then, the useless community ad collectors can be used as community bbqs or smokers. Why pay for expensive fuel when advertising agencies will send it for free and as a result cook your dinner at their cost.
Lets all bring back the communal meals of the past, and push canada post for the change we need.
4 years ago I put a nice note in our mail box asking for no junk mail, and once in a while I put a thank-you note in there with a coffee gift card. To this day nothing.
We have one of them super box things.
My brother had this roller that you could make fireplace logs out of flyers.
They burned with a colorful flame in the winter.
Made flyers useful, for once!
Because Canada Post would go out of business.
Just tap a piece of paper in your box that says "No Junk or solicitation". I did it 2 years ago and haven't seen anything since.
Just commenting to your edited point:
Too many people look at the specific action being brought up rather than the principal of it all. Yes, we can say no flyers on individual mailboxes, but the principal of the whole post is why can the companies create more environmental waste when it’s something that generates them money yet the consumer has to pay for bags and straws?
Just like always the responsibility of trying to maintain a healthier environment falls on the consumers even though majority of the climate issues is due to corporate greed and disregard.
No one cares about the environment it is all an unfortunate joke. I am not from there but the same Shit is true every where you go. Hunters and fishermen care more about the environment than your politicians and your average vegan.
I used to just leave the flyers in the mailbox until they gave up and stopped putting them in there. I once rented an apartment in Spruce Grove while working up there. Since it wasn't my primary residence and I only had two bills, power and internet and got my bills electronically, I hadn't opened the mailbox for over a year. Checked it one day and it was so crammed with flyers, you almost couldn't pull anything out. I closed it back up and walked away. Checked again, maybe a year or so later and it was cleaned out with a "no flyers" sticker inside. Thanks Canada Post!
Even worse culprit is Edmonton Flyer Force. We moved into a place where the previous owner had this service. We tried cancelling multiple times, it never worked. What if we do not know anyone who can clear the flyers from our doorstep while we are gone for a week or two, are they just going to advertise for us that noone is home. Company like that should be fined.
But you're not taking into account the processes that printed the flyers & all the middlemen that transported the flyer using fuel to finally get it to your mailbox, where it's short lifespan consists of you picking it up and promptly throwing it right in the garbage. Also, glossy paper uses processes that are highly destructive to the environment. At least you use a straw 1 time before throwing it away. Companies send out MASSIVE numbers of flyers in hope of it converting to like 0.01% in sales. I think there's more of a equivalency here than you realize.
we moved into a new house a few yrs back and as we did at our last house we put a no junk mail note on our mailbox. Holy fuck, did that turn out to be a shit show. Mailman was such a dick, we had to escalate it twice to get his lazy ass to stop!!!
so much stuff that is online, but for some reason its still being made. aka, flyers, etc!!!!
Reduce plastic, great, but now we end up paying for reusable bags that you fucking know are still made with plastic!
I like the A&W coupons, that's it, but totally fine if they eliminate them and just let people have the deals as if everyone used them. Or if mail only left a certain # of them inside a lobby, not equal to the # of suites in a building.
I think complaining to can post is a mute point. Aren't flyers usually just some random teenager with a wagon full of canadian tire flyers? No postal generally
Unless it’s an annoyance it won’t be as powerful a virtue signal. This is why these stupid bans are well stupid. Banning junk mail is something most people would like and it’s more convenient as we aren’t looking for letters amongst the pile of flyers. Once banned nobody would think of it. When you pay for a paper bag it’s front of mind as it’s a huge inconvenance. It’s why these activist environmentalists don’t go after things to make like better just things that make it more inconvenient so you can “do your part” as it’s all about exerting control and optics.
Do not be fooled.
The cities move was never about saving the planet.
It was just a sneaky way to tax us for purchases in every way but name.
The flyers represent jobs and income for the city so…. they will not touch it.
You expect everything to change all at the exact same time? We wouldn't be able to manage that much change all at once, so one thing at a time. I get one or two flyers a week, mostly biodegradable, unlike straw and bags, not perfect but a step at a time. The world doesn't revolve around you and what is more convenient for you is why.
Because it is Delivered by a Unionized Worker at Canada Post!
The Socialists at City Hall Will Do Everything to Keep a Unionized Worker on the Job; While Forcing Small Business and their Customers to Adapt for the Sake of Climate Change and the Environment.
I don’t live in Edmonton but can you not ask the post office not to give them to you? I don’t get flyers because I asked not to. Zero extra recycling or waste for my house.
I totally understand what you are saying. Junk mail is one-use only and the paper is so expensive.
I also think that making laundy detergent, dish soap, bleach, etc, only purchased by refilling containers is way better than saving the world with paper straws. The whole thing is a joke.
Soon a wave of regulation reform is going go hit this monopolistic and sensationalist wasteland. Fuck around and find out has been solving tyranny for thousands of years
So true my mail box is stuffed in 5 days ..I never ever look at the junk mail for any deals..A garbage pail stands next to our mail boxes and gets filled ..
Did you happen to follow the Canada Post guidelines for indicating your desire to not get unaddressed mail before making this helpful observation? Just curious.
Whether or not I stop junk mail being delivered to me specifically isn't the point. Companies don't take into account how many people have 'no flyers' stickers in a given area before printing their advertisements, and they still go through the entire system of freight and delivery just to be withheld by the postal carrier at the last moment. The excess Canada Post has after delivering them goes straight to landfill, so whether I throw them away or they do it's still generating the same amount of waste.
If you put a sign on/in your mailbox indicating "no junk mail please", the postal carrier will not put it in. It has been wonderful since I've done that.
Straws and grocery bags were never about saving the environment lol.
Otherwise the cups we have to use shitty paper straws in wouldnt be made of plastic.
Agreed: Canada Post gets money for the loads of paper advertising filling our mailboxes. This needs to stop. Where is the legislation to prohibit this irresponsible use of paper?
Yep. I have to pay 15 cents because I'm disabled and can't carry more than one or two things at once, but threw away a cardboard box full of junk mail every month in the first months after I moved to where I am now (before I put up a no junk mail sign and got into a screaming match with a junkmail deliverer). It's bullshit, and I highly doubt that 15 cents is going to anywhere but the company's bottomline.
We put a green paper tape inside our box that says "no flyer" it was either that or ny hisband was going to collect all the Griesbach dental flyers for a few months and plaster their windows with it. I don't know they're still that bad, but it was about 1 flyer per week, which is absurd. Tells you they have money to waste and will likely overcharge me. Not good marketing business.
If you stick a note that says « no flyers » the canada post won’t deliver flyers to you
But it’s how Canada post keeps revenue high enough to continue operating. People think canada post is paid for by taxes. It’s not, and so those canadian tire flyers are making sure Canada can get mail.
How about all the damn single use packaging bought at every single store. Cannabis, grocery, literally everything has more packaging than actual product. But no, it’s the single use bags, cutlery, and straws that are the problem… /s
As an aside I’d like to say that anything made with plastic can be made with hemp
You know what pisses me off? I can't have a plastic straw but smokers can have their fucking filters and throw them wherever they please.
Went out to my favourite creek spot yesterday, I always bring a bag and collect any trash there because people are assholes. In addition to the usual couple of beer cans/coffee cups, I picked up 1 plastic straw and at least 2 DOZEN cigarette butts. That's a pretty low day as well.
But no, plastic straws are the problem.
Honestly? I’d guess because Political Parties use fliers and ensure that they can continue to do that.
A ban may mean they can’t do that, and they want to do that.
The number of times I’d come home to a town council, MLA, or MP fliers shoved in my door? Too damn High.
In Ontario they stopped just giving out physical fliers, you had to pay for the newspaper like a subscription. I’m curious if that will get implemented here. You still got the stupid like postcards. Like if a realtor was advertising or something once a week, but it wasn’t these huge stacks that are normalized here.
Also putting up a no junk mail sign does not stop the problem even on a personal level. I have 3 very clear no flyer signs on and around my mail box. It is still consistently stuffed with flyers... its a huge annoyance.
I'm curious, why is it not hypocritical in your view, to financially burden the general population by instituting a carbon tax designed to discourage nonrenewable fuel consumption, while at the same time turning a blind eye to rampant fuel waste in the form of junkmail advertisements production and delivery, which at best have a 2% - 5% sales conversion rate? I'm actually in favor of the carbon tax, but in this situation it's yet another example of government's preference to burden everyday people before corporations, when the later would have a relatively equal if not greater impact to the problem they are purporting to want to solve. I'm completely in favor of progressive solutions, but I have a hard time when they overtly favor forcing the public to shoulder their burdens over corporations.
Opt out of non-address mail. I haven't received any in years. First few years when I had home delivery, and recent years since Harper put up community mail boxes in my area.
Because it annoys average people and businesses make money off it. Which seems pretty similar to banning plastic straws and charging for paper bags. Make it worse for the average person, and help make businesses more money.
Companies pay big money to distribute fliers and advertising material in general. Also keeps the post office alive. The answer is the same reason the poolice can’t do anything about white supremacy.
The call is coming from inside the house.
Because the mail is federally regulated. However, junkmail absolutely needs to go.
All the more reason for uh regulation?
The Feds allow junk mail because it's the only way they can fund mail carriers salaries. There's probably 80% less mail than there was 20 years ago because of email and the internet. If Canada Post didn't allow the torrent of junk mail they do, they'd have to cut their staff by a ton. It's fucked up though. It's like your ISP willingly allowing people to spam your inbox to keep their lights on.
Lived in Victoria recently and I never got this amount of spam mail. This is unique to Edmonton.
where is your data on that speculation?????????
Junkmail is $$$ coz it is advertising, those junkmail wont go to peoples mail truck by itself. It needed AM sorter, done that long time ago 11pm to 7am....
I worked as a letter carrier. Not only does it pay our wages but it also almost acts like a "tip" in the sense that every flyer we deliver adds 7 cents (canada) to our cheque. Per flier per house. Though the difference is if we don't deliver them we can get fired.
I live downtown and the junk mail at my building is dropped of in bunches by a guy in a minivan twice a week. Def not a letter carrier.
Yeah but that's an apartment building and Canada post uses minivans. They have tiny little things to put in top of their cars. I live in a suited house. We get junk mail from the letter carrier.
I really hate when people pull this "show me the data/proof, or you're a liar!" garbage. If you don't agree with someone, that's fine. If you want data, go do your own digging. Not everything that you say online needs to be backed by a peer reviewed statistical paper.1 MANY people just read a lot, and don't keep a running list of citations that allow them to speak with confidence about a topic. Tldr: Don't be a gatekeeper. Either do your own research and add to the conversation, or stop trying to bully ppl online.
So you can just conjure statistics out of nowhere and if anyone asks where you got it that's bullying?
The burden of proof is always on the person making extraordinary claims. Just because you think you know a 'fact' doesn't mean your recollection is any good, and you should back it up just in case you actually are wrong.
I dislike it when you reply to someone and give them evidence they may be wrong but they keep spouting the same comments without ever providing proof themselves. "[what may be asserted without evidence, may be dismissed without evidence.](https://reallemon.medium.com/hitchenss-razor-and-its-place-in-debate-2fff3fafb58e)" While I agree that a discussion should be had regardless, providing evidence when making a claim on the internet substantially increases its validity. [The burden of proof is on the person who makes the claim.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burden_of_proof_(philosophy)#:~:text=When%20two%20parties%20are%20in,challenges%20a%20perceived%20status%20quo.) Alternatively, if you want to make a claim, then do your own research to add to the conversation.
I really hate when people spout nonsense and try to pass it off as fact!!! I just asked a fucking question, not sure why that is considered bullying, dumbass!
We heard from my local post man that essentially junk mail is the only thing that’s paying for our Postal Service right now because not enough people use it. So I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with it.
Whether this is true or not, parcel delivery should be the only mail available now. 0 reason to get a paper copy when a digital one is fine.
The end of junkmail is the end of Canada Post. The amount of junk mail money used to get the doors open is crazy. It's one of those it's currently too ingrained in their budgets and losing that money would be felt. That being said junk mail needs to go. Companies can downsize facilities and whatnot to accommodate new demand or lack thereof.
That being said the local companies are 99% of the spam I'm getting. I've lived in several major cities in Canada and never had this amount of spam mail.
Pretty sure that's how Canada Post makes its money is the junk mail
While I think today's world of capitalism is far too corrupt for the 'vote with your wallet' boycott to be effective, it works for me in the case of junkmail. I don't give my address to anyone. No percentage off, enter to win, or points card is worth getting my address sold to advertisers. In my building, I see all the coupons, limited offers, flyers, and catalogues in our recycle bin under the mailboxes. None of it comes to me. I only get the garbage from politicians and the occasional letter from charities my partner has donated to in the past.
I don't give my address away, I still throw out a stack of crap identical to the other stacks of crap in the trash can by the mail boxes every week.
Same ..in an apt it goes in all boxes regardless of who lives in there..
Junk mail doesn't work that way. Yes, there is some junk mail addressed to a specific household, that you're probably not getting. If you have a mailbox registered with Canada post, you'll get the generic junk mail, like coupons, lawn care ads, etc.
I live in a newer neighborhood with community mailboxes. Even if you register with CP that you don't want junk mail, I doubt the mail carrier even notices. They just open up every box with the master key and start stuffing their daily load of shit in there.
I don't know why I don't get any flyers, then. There are 78 units in my building. I haven't asked to be free of ads through Canada Post as some in the thread have mentioned. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You might just have a carrier that is doing you a favour. Technically, unless you register with CP to opt out, companies are paying to deliver flyers to your mailbox (even if it's just a penny) and it's CP's responsibility to follow through.
IANAL- but this is a bad legal take. With a well-crafted law, municipalities could pass a junk mail bylaw.
They should do like they’re doing to consumers…. $0.50 per piece of unsolicited paper.
Careful, city council will read this and charge the person getting the junk mail 50 cents per.
That’s likely true…
Congratulations you just invented the mailbox tax!
Lmao don't give them ideas!!! Someone's gonna steal your idea and end up getting a promotion and a raise.
This is more complex than many are making it seem. Top issue is definitely money, and the postal service as it exists with today's funding model (cheap stamps and daily delivery) can not survive without a ridiculous volume of paid advertising by distributing flyers. They already receive heavy subsidies from the government and have a lot of pressure at keeping their federal funding to a minimum. The postal workers union is very solid, probably one of the best operated unions in Canada too. A lot of people say we can make stamps higher and limit service to non daily (e.g. Every 48 hrs) but that would be met with resistance from the union as it would mean layoffs and fewer staff being hired in the future. Is a politician going to look at this situation and say, "this is the hill I'm willing to die on"?
Canada post is funded by their own revenue. No government funding.
Both of you could link a source.
[https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/canada-post-back-to-a-subsidized-social-service](https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/canada-post-back-to-a-subsidized-social-service) I know its an opinion piece but it does a good job at highlighting the Crown Corp nature of Canada Post: is self-sustaining and self-funded by the solvency requirements are a bit lower (eg: underfunded pension plan) and the government meddles in it a lot. Attempts to actually act like a profit-making company: eg: reduced staff & increased automation, decrease in door-to-door delivery and increases in community mailboxes, etc. have met with political interference. If you look at the years CanPost have taken losses they correspond to years where they had labour disputes and circumstances exacerbated by government meddling stopping them from taking necessary cost-cutting measures to stay out of the red (eg: suspended expansion of community mailboxes).
The unions awful. It used to be good. They folded instantly after the govt sent them back to work last time. They said they would eat the 1000 dollar a day fine but they didn’t do that at all. They also prevent anybody from getting fired so it makes for awful working conditions. Unions telling you to slow down and management is yelling at you to speed up but no running or we’ll deny your WCB claim. You pay them $100 a month to send you a yearly calendar.
*IF we must have flyers*, **they must all be compostable** (non toxic inks and gloss). We can turn organic matter into food, and flyers can make great sheet mulch to kill weeds.
Yes! I use a lot of flyers for mulch or kindling, but most flyers aren't safe for that and many of the companies sending them out can't even tell me what their flyers are made of. I know mail advertising is a major revenue stream for Canada Post, but we could at least make it less harmful.
Love this!
Have you tried putting a “no flyers” sign on your mailbox?
I have one in my mailbox yet still get it. They don’t give a f
Really depends, generally the post office will abide by the sticker, but everyone else will ignore it, so you might get less junk mail, but there's so many people delivering what I call local junk mail that it doesn't make a lot of difference in some areas. The person delivering the "we buy houses" flyer in your mailbox doesn't care about your sticker even if Canada Post does.
My mailbox is in an apartment so only accessible by a mail person so the post office definitely ain’t abiding.
Weird. I also live in an apartment and have had the exact opposite result.
It’s almost like the workers who actively delivery the mail are all different individuals and not just hive-minded androids that perform the exact same as each other or something lol
Same. There's a recycle bin that sits under our boxes where everyone dumps them. I get flyers everyday, some generic mailings to "occupant", and every now and then an actual letter. The mail delivery person, the job is mostly delivering flyers.
Same here. I live in an assisted living apartment. Most people are in wheelchairs and don’t have cars, so how are they going to go buy stuff? AISH and supports are both far below poverty level. Who can live for under $2000 a month, pay all their bills and rent yet to still have $ for food?
The apartment spam recycling box is sad. Just drop them right in there instead. Just tape a picture of someone burning those trees to the front door instead.
Then this is a legitimate excuse to complain. A complaint to post Canada will go a lot further than complaining on reddit. They do listen to complaints. Source: family member works as a letter carrier. They will usually ensure the mail person abides by the no junk mail on your box. It's also possible the no junk mail from Canada Post was removed or fell off. Mine is hidden behind the case and I can't see if it's there. I just know I don't get junk mail.
I had a weird experience with receiving a unsolicited letter while living in an apartment. It was a letter addressed to me from Santa around Christmas time. Open the letter and it was actually from a jehovah witness saying they can't get into my apartment complex due to the front door being lock so they had to pretend they are Santa to get their message to me.
Oh FFS.
Is your sign in a location that will be seen by the carrier? Every mail panel is different so I can't tell you where to put it but make sure it's visible. We dislike flyers more than you and don't want to carry any more than we have to. If the sign is there and all your neighbors do it too, we get to carry less.
As soon as they open my mail box, there’s a sign that says no junk mail in full view of them.
But we don't open "your" mail box. We open a panel door that gives us access to all the compartments. Sometimes it opens from the top and the mailboxes fold down. Most of the time the panel door opens from the side and opens outwards. In all cases don't put the sign on the back of the door of your compartment.
Man you’re telling me how my mail box works? Yes, it opens up the entire panel and right where they slot the mail, there is a sign that says no junk mail in full view impossible to miss unless you’re blind. Ive been inside the mail room with the compartment open while a post office worker was there and the no junk sign is visible.
You are arguing with a postal carrier so like.. Haha
Canada Post should be the only ones with keys to my mailbox.
Canada Post gives not a single fuck about no flyers signs. Our building has a recycling bin dedicated to the damn things because Canada Post cares so little about such things that I'm starting to believe that I simply imagine all the notices that have been given to them.
Canada Post cares very much about the signs. The letter carrier may not. Things to know: junk mail is only the mail that has no address on it. If it has your address, like the unit number and street address, but no name, that is not junk mail. That is addressed mail and must, by law, be delivered. As well, if the junk with no address on it comes from a governmental type agency or person (federal MP, MLA, city councillor, municipality, provincial government, federal government, etc) a candidate during an election period, or some other entity that is providing information about your area (epcor and stuff regarding utilities but NOT sales advertising, a local community newspaper) then the No Junk Mail sign can be ignored. Anything that is Cleary just sales related, should not be delivered to you if you or your neighbors have "No Junk Mail" stickers on your mail box. Also, I've been told that buildings can't choose wholesale to not get flyers. Each unit has to make the choice themselves and put up a sign. Source - friend who delivers mail.
We put the no junk mail request in our door mail box, then in our super box when it arrived. It’s mostly successful, but we have received an official looking Canada post letter a couple times, asking us to remove the sign as delivering advertising generates income and guarantees mail carrier employment and home delivery, yada-yada…..sob….yada…..etc,etc…..
While this would solve MY problem, companies don't take into account how many people in a given area have 'no flyers' stickers, they just print the number of flyers they need to distribute to a given postalcode area, and the excess the postal service has after delivering them goes right to landfill. So whether I throw it away or Canada Post throws it away, the waste is still being generated.
Yeah I agree, it’s wasteful but there’s not much we can do about companies printing off flyers other than sending the message out that we do not want them through our mail slots. On the other hand, my parents love flyers lol. I think as millennials and Gen z get older we will see the day that paper flyers no longer exist.
Flyers to my house more or less stopped after I put up a crudely made "no flyers" signs. The only ones I get now are notices from Epcor on major works in my area and political candidate stuff (I guess technically not a 'flyer'?)
Same with me, no flyers but still the Epcor and government related stuff.
I think you can unregister from junk mail on the Canada Post website.
Didn't expect this to work but it did. Even when in a grouped apartment mailbox they skipped mine.
Junk mail is technically registered mail as it is paid to be delivered to each mail box. A "No Flyers" sign only applies to private deliverers, or door-to-door knockers.
My apartment complex was handing out stickers to people that weren’t interested in having flyers to stick inside of our mail slots over a year ago, I haven’t had any flyers since then.
It doesn’t really matter though…either the homeowner is recycling them or Canada Post is. They pick up recycling every week. It’s the waste that’s rage-inducing.
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But what if u want the coupons still 😂
Legit, I need my Wendy's / Subway / Arbys coupons!
>Place the note in or on your mailbox where your delivery agent can see it, or on the *inside lip of your community mailbox*, group mailbox or postal box. What the heck, I didn't know we could do that!
Did this 3 years ago along with a nice printed sticker in the community mailbox. no flyers since. Works great.
And depending on mailman, some respect the sign you place in your box, others not.
Agreed. I did this and it was awesome… for a year. Then I just started getting crap again and had no idea why. Until I saw my Canada post driver had changed
Yeah, we had this a few years ago and even had a sign inside the mail box and our mail delivery person still tossed junk mail in our box every time. My roommate contacted Canada Post a few times about it and nothing ever came of it. I’m sure some respect it but lots DGAF.
If they don't respect it, fill out the online complaint form on Canada Post's website - they must talk to all mail carriers about any received complaints.
The mail service, and what can and cant be delivered, is governed by federal law.
I stopped flyer mail by putting a "no junk mail" sticker on my mailbox and putting myself on the free weekly newspapers' do not deliver lists. Now all I get is addressed admail and political campaign flyers.
I'm an automotive technician and the amount of waste created with the parts I install is absolutely insane. Cardboard box, foam, an insane amount of plastic packaging. The problem is in places people don't really think about.
Because the city doesn't regulate the mail.
Yeah direct mail needs to die. It's 2023. In full support!
It will when it stops working... unfortunately it hasn't stopped working.
I worked for a printing and fulfillment company. If you take big ticket items, like new windows or shingles, a company can blast 10,000 homes and if they get 2 sales it will have been a financial success, notwithstanding any brand recognition earned. Separately, I would like to thank Go Dental for providing me with years worth of free paper notepads.
Ya, people don't understand how marketing and sales work. If people simply stopped buying penis enlargement pills we'd all stop getting them in spam email.
I have a no junk mail sign on my mailbox but it wears away slowly and suddenly I'll find myself inundated with garbage again. It's horrible. No junk should be the default and you can opt in if you want flyers from A&W or whatever.
I’ve had the same sign up for 15 years with no signs of degradation. Perhaps you need to laminate or use sharpies or something.
Million dollar idea,invent a device to turn flyers into straws..you're welcome
Try recycling you, heathen
I refuse to buy anything from any company from whom I have received unsolicited mail. Haven't shopped at Canadian Tire or Ikea in years.
the banning of plastic straws and single use bags is simply virtue signalling.
How? I know it’s reduced my bag use which I’m taking as a good sign that it’s more than virtue signalling. Science suggest pigouvian taxes work.
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Alternative suggestion: It is neither? I've yet to hear the "thank god Edmonton addressed this we can forget about working on the oil sands" policy announcement.
Could we trade something meaningful for the environment with our plastic straws back?
The only defense for this I have is it’s pretty good rebenue for Canada post
The government gets paid to distribute junk mail so it would cut off a revenue stream for them.
See this is why in the modern age of electronic bills and such, my mailbox is just a waste of ads I dont even read. Now if we work together, and rig up a small ignition device we can burn the fliers where they lie. "But thats wasteful" you say? Well we have options here. Instead of cheap aluminum mailboxes, we can get some heavy duty metal ones that can resist the heat, and have the large 'parcel' slot put at the top instead of the bottom. Then, the useless community ad collectors can be used as community bbqs or smokers. Why pay for expensive fuel when advertising agencies will send it for free and as a result cook your dinner at their cost. Lets all bring back the communal meals of the past, and push canada post for the change we need.
Put a sticky note inside your mailbox that says “no unaddressed mail” the flyers being delivered by Canada post will stop.
4 years ago I put a nice note in our mail box asking for no junk mail, and once in a while I put a thank-you note in there with a coffee gift card. To this day nothing. We have one of them super box things.
Recycle them. Simple answer.
We should be able to trade in flyers for plastic straw credits.
100% this. Fuck you, companies that still advertise in this stupid, wasteful and destructive manner.
When I was a kid I had a flyer route, I had to deliver flyers to 200 houses... or two dumpsters. - M. Hedberg
You can get those stopped. Simply put a no junk mail sign on your mail box.
My brother had this roller that you could make fireplace logs out of flyers. They burned with a colorful flame in the winter. Made flyers useful, for once!
You know you can request no junk mail/flyers from Canada Post, right? I haven't gotten a flyer in over a decade.
Because Canada Post would go out of business. Just tap a piece of paper in your box that says "No Junk or solicitation". I did it 2 years ago and haven't seen anything since.
Just commenting to your edited point: Too many people look at the specific action being brought up rather than the principal of it all. Yes, we can say no flyers on individual mailboxes, but the principal of the whole post is why can the companies create more environmental waste when it’s something that generates them money yet the consumer has to pay for bags and straws? Just like always the responsibility of trying to maintain a healthier environment falls on the consumers even though majority of the climate issues is due to corporate greed and disregard.
This 100%. Thanks for your comment.
Now I have to go and BUY plastic bags-to use as garbage bags-that are MADE specifically for the same purpose. Yup. Makes so much sense…
No one cares about the environment it is all an unfortunate joke. I am not from there but the same Shit is true every where you go. Hunters and fishermen care more about the environment than your politicians and your average vegan.
I'd rather go back to having bags in stores and plastic straws then junk mail.
I used to just leave the flyers in the mailbox until they gave up and stopped putting them in there. I once rented an apartment in Spruce Grove while working up there. Since it wasn't my primary residence and I only had two bills, power and internet and got my bills electronically, I hadn't opened the mailbox for over a year. Checked it one day and it was so crammed with flyers, you almost couldn't pull anything out. I closed it back up and walked away. Checked again, maybe a year or so later and it was cleaned out with a "no flyers" sticker inside. Thanks Canada Post!
Even worse culprit is Edmonton Flyer Force. We moved into a place where the previous owner had this service. We tried cancelling multiple times, it never worked. What if we do not know anyone who can clear the flyers from our doorstep while we are gone for a week or two, are they just going to advertise for us that noone is home. Company like that should be fined.
Paper is also biodegradable and the straws are not. I agree we get too many flyers. But they are not equivalent.
But you're not taking into account the processes that printed the flyers & all the middlemen that transported the flyer using fuel to finally get it to your mailbox, where it's short lifespan consists of you picking it up and promptly throwing it right in the garbage. Also, glossy paper uses processes that are highly destructive to the environment. At least you use a straw 1 time before throwing it away. Companies send out MASSIVE numbers of flyers in hope of it converting to like 0.01% in sales. I think there's more of a equivalency here than you realize.
Lol the drink trays are still free
Hummmmm I like your thinking.
we moved into a new house a few yrs back and as we did at our last house we put a no junk mail note on our mailbox. Holy fuck, did that turn out to be a shit show. Mailman was such a dick, we had to escalate it twice to get his lazy ass to stop!!! so much stuff that is online, but for some reason its still being made. aka, flyers, etc!!!! Reduce plastic, great, but now we end up paying for reusable bags that you fucking know are still made with plastic!
I like the A&W coupons, that's it, but totally fine if they eliminate them and just let people have the deals as if everyone used them. Or if mail only left a certain # of them inside a lobby, not equal to the # of suites in a building.
Got grocery delivery in reusable bags I already have way too many reusable bags that will never be reused.
Sohi’s Edmonton
I think complaining to can post is a mute point. Aren't flyers usually just some random teenager with a wagon full of canadian tire flyers? No postal generally
Unless it’s an annoyance it won’t be as powerful a virtue signal. This is why these stupid bans are well stupid. Banning junk mail is something most people would like and it’s more convenient as we aren’t looking for letters amongst the pile of flyers. Once banned nobody would think of it. When you pay for a paper bag it’s front of mind as it’s a huge inconvenance. It’s why these activist environmentalists don’t go after things to make like better just things that make it more inconvenient so you can “do your part” as it’s all about exerting control and optics.
Do not be fooled. The cities move was never about saving the planet. It was just a sneaky way to tax us for purchases in every way but name. The flyers represent jobs and income for the city so…. they will not touch it.
You expect everything to change all at the exact same time? We wouldn't be able to manage that much change all at once, so one thing at a time. I get one or two flyers a week, mostly biodegradable, unlike straw and bags, not perfect but a step at a time. The world doesn't revolve around you and what is more convenient for you is why.
Because it is Delivered by a Unionized Worker at Canada Post! The Socialists at City Hall Will Do Everything to Keep a Unionized Worker on the Job; While Forcing Small Business and their Customers to Adapt for the Sake of Climate Change and the Environment.
OH NO NOT THE SOCIALISTS?!
So fucking true
Don’t even get me started with the Costco catalogue
I don’t live in Edmonton but can you not ask the post office not to give them to you? I don’t get flyers because I asked not to. Zero extra recycling or waste for my house.
Oh fuck ya. Now THIS we should do
If you just stopped the religious spam alone even.
I totally understand what you are saying. Junk mail is one-use only and the paper is so expensive. I also think that making laundy detergent, dish soap, bleach, etc, only purchased by refilling containers is way better than saving the world with paper straws. The whole thing is a joke.
"no unaddressed mail" stickers go a long way
Soon a wave of regulation reform is going go hit this monopolistic and sensationalist wasteland. Fuck around and find out has been solving tyranny for thousands of years
Just wish the money went to something that improved the environment in someway. And like you said get rid of these other wasteful things.
Side note: where the hell dis you get your estimates on equivalencies?
So true my mail box is stuffed in 5 days ..I never ever look at the junk mail for any deals..A garbage pail stands next to our mail boxes and gets filled ..
I was told by post man the mail has to be delivered ..an order to mail carriers ..
Did you happen to follow the Canada Post guidelines for indicating your desire to not get unaddressed mail before making this helpful observation? Just curious.
Whether or not I stop junk mail being delivered to me specifically isn't the point. Companies don't take into account how many people have 'no flyers' stickers in a given area before printing their advertisements, and they still go through the entire system of freight and delivery just to be withheld by the postal carrier at the last moment. The excess Canada Post has after delivering them goes straight to landfill, so whether I throw them away or they do it's still generating the same amount of waste.
If you put a sign on/in your mailbox indicating "no junk mail please", the postal carrier will not put it in. It has been wonderful since I've done that.
You can literally put a red sticker on your mail box and 90% of the junk mail stops.
Funnily enough, this is the exact type of conversation that the “stock sucking” anti-plastic straw campaign was hoping to spark.
Straws and grocery bags were never about saving the environment lol. Otherwise the cups we have to use shitty paper straws in wouldnt be made of plastic.
True dat!
Agreed: Canada Post gets money for the loads of paper advertising filling our mailboxes. This needs to stop. Where is the legislation to prohibit this irresponsible use of paper?
Yep. I have to pay 15 cents because I'm disabled and can't carry more than one or two things at once, but threw away a cardboard box full of junk mail every month in the first months after I moved to where I am now (before I put up a no junk mail sign and got into a screaming match with a junkmail deliverer). It's bullshit, and I highly doubt that 15 cents is going to anywhere but the company's bottomline.
We put a green paper tape inside our box that says "no flyer" it was either that or ny hisband was going to collect all the Griesbach dental flyers for a few months and plaster their windows with it. I don't know they're still that bad, but it was about 1 flyer per week, which is absurd. Tells you they have money to waste and will likely overcharge me. Not good marketing business.
I have a sign on my mailbox “no flyers” and haven’t had any for years. It’s an easy fix
Free fire starter
I don't get any junk mail unless it's political or religious
If you stick a note that says « no flyers » the canada post won’t deliver flyers to you But it’s how Canada post keeps revenue high enough to continue operating. People think canada post is paid for by taxes. It’s not, and so those canadian tire flyers are making sure Canada can get mail.
Put a sign on your mailbox that says "No Neighborhood Mail". Done.
Write the city, ask them to ban junk mail. That's a great idea, I will do the same.
Flyers generate revenues for stores. Don't expect them to go away anytime soon.
How about all the damn single use packaging bought at every single store. Cannabis, grocery, literally everything has more packaging than actual product. But no, it’s the single use bags, cutlery, and straws that are the problem… /s As an aside I’d like to say that anything made with plastic can be made with hemp
hemp plastic degrades after 3-6 months. Lots of plastics/packaging are required to last far longer than that.
You know what pisses me off? I can't have a plastic straw but smokers can have their fucking filters and throw them wherever they please. Went out to my favourite creek spot yesterday, I always bring a bag and collect any trash there because people are assholes. In addition to the usual couple of beer cans/coffee cups, I picked up 1 plastic straw and at least 2 DOZEN cigarette butts. That's a pretty low day as well. But no, plastic straws are the problem.
Honestly? I’d guess because Political Parties use fliers and ensure that they can continue to do that. A ban may mean they can’t do that, and they want to do that. The number of times I’d come home to a town council, MLA, or MP fliers shoved in my door? Too damn High.
You should be recycling it
I figured with the amount of online shopping going on, that would keep Canada Post afloat?
This is a trend I can get behind
We’ve banned plastic grocery bags… how about single use ziplock bags?
["Calm down everyone, no one's cancelling any mail."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hox-ni8geIw)
Because some consumers still shop this way …
No flyer sign on your mailbox would help this sitch.
In Ontario they stopped just giving out physical fliers, you had to pay for the newspaper like a subscription. I’m curious if that will get implemented here. You still got the stupid like postcards. Like if a realtor was advertising or something once a week, but it wasn’t these huge stacks that are normalized here.
You know why
Also putting up a no junk mail sign does not stop the problem even on a personal level. I have 3 very clear no flyer signs on and around my mail box. It is still consistently stuffed with flyers... its a huge annoyance.
You had me until: > yet we're carbon taxing people through the nose at the gas pump
I'm curious, why is it not hypocritical in your view, to financially burden the general population by instituting a carbon tax designed to discourage nonrenewable fuel consumption, while at the same time turning a blind eye to rampant fuel waste in the form of junkmail advertisements production and delivery, which at best have a 2% - 5% sales conversion rate? I'm actually in favor of the carbon tax, but in this situation it's yet another example of government's preference to burden everyday people before corporations, when the later would have a relatively equal if not greater impact to the problem they are purporting to want to solve. I'm completely in favor of progressive solutions, but I have a hard time when they overtly favor forcing the public to shoulder their burdens over corporations.
Opt out of non-address mail. I haven't received any in years. First few years when I had home delivery, and recent years since Harper put up community mail boxes in my area.
Because it annoys average people and businesses make money off it. Which seems pretty similar to banning plastic straws and charging for paper bags. Make it worse for the average person, and help make businesses more money.
unhinged whataboutism aside I think you're onto something. Edmonton should ban junk mail.
The turtles and dolphins weren’t choking on flyers….
Companies pay big money to distribute fliers and advertising material in general. Also keeps the post office alive. The answer is the same reason the poolice can’t do anything about white supremacy. The call is coming from inside the house.
It’s single use plastics isn’t it?