Decline, decline, decline

I saw a comment on a discussion forum about a charity wristband that they writer had accepted, but he didn't think it was a good thing to be making stuff out of plastic. He realised it was just more stuff.

My answer is to not accept it. Or, worst case, if you've taken it without thinking go back, and tell them you don't want it, and why. It's difficult with charities, especially those you admire and support, but they still have email to get in touch.

I decline stuff all the time, and I feel better for it. Flyers, catalogues, whatever they're handing out. There was a couple of guys handing out plastic bottles of water at my local train station recently. They gave me some weird looks because I turned them down. They took a step or two to follow me, thinking I had mis-heard, "It's free!" - "I don't want it, thanks."

Don't take it, decline it, say "No thanks."

Goodbye - Wine Selectors

I once made a mistake during a dull wait at an airport.  I got sucked into the Wine Selectors wine tasting, and then signed up.  Ok, there were a number of reasons this turned out to be a bad idea, not all the fault of Wine Selectors.  But they did neglect to tell me that there was going to be an annual fee of $22 or so for me to be a member.

Anyways, I bailed out.  However, I got a piece of spam snail mail from them this week.  To be honest, I think I've had spam mail from them before, and done nothing about it.  That's very lazy of me.  And if you compare the date on this post with the date of the last post you will see that I've been very lazy with this blog - which is fairly reflective of how lazy I've been with reducing, reducing, reducing.

Oh, well. If you fall off the wagon, get back on.  I got onto the Wine Selectors website today and asked them not to send me any more spam.  I hope they take heed.  It will mean less paper, less ink, less energy.  Minuscule amounts of each, I know, but if everyone did it...Just follow my lead.

I felt way better about asking these guys not to spam than I did about asking Amnesty.

Junk Mail

Despite my best intentions to try to reduce the amount of paper I'm using there are many people and organisations who seem intent on filling my postbox and recycle bin with stuff that I don't want and didn't ask for in the first place.

Here's a useful link for anyone (in Australia) who wants to reduce the unwanted advertising, junk mail and flyers they receive.

This Australia post site shows how to reduce the number of unaddressed letters you might get:
http://auspost.com.au/personal/managing-letterbox.html

And this link will take you to the Do Not Mail register of ADMA (Australian Direct Marketing Association).  Register here to stop recieving unwanted mail from all companies who are part of this program:
http://www.adma.com.au/consumer-help/do-not-mail/

It looks like I need to get an extra sticker for my postbox, in addition to the "no advertising material" sticker it currently has.  But as AusPost point out - not everyone will heed the stickers anyway.  I get plenty of flyers from local real estate agents who must think that leaflets promoting their services are perhaps educational.

Goodbye NRMA

The NRMA (a leading motoring organisation of Australia) provide a publication called Open Road.  Now, while it's good to have membership of NRMA for emergency fixes to my vehicle, its not so good to get this publication.

I've tried before without success to cancel this, but was emailing, and I didn't get a response.  Here's the correct method: call 13 11 22, select option to amend an existing membership etc, then ask not to recieve Open Road.  They'll switch this off for you, but warn that you may receive next copy due to printing lead times.

So this magazine has 76 pages (Sep/Oct 2010) printed double-sided and is published every two months, so I have reduced consumption by 228 pages (or nearly half a ream of paper), and six plastic bags.  That count doesn't include the additional brochure inserts (2 pages). That means my time is saved, and there is less clutter in the house.  It also means the energy used to print, distribute, collect recycling and recyle is also now not needed.  What a relief!

If you're wondering about whether or not to stick with this mag, here's a few stats.  This latest copy has a lot of advertising.  In fact, only 50% of the mag is articles - not very interesting articles in my view, but hey you might like them.   Approx figures below:

Approx. figures for content of Sep/Oct 2010 Open Road magazine

Interestingly, the direct advertising from this magazine, in 2009, provided NRMA with $5.9M of revenue, but their distrbution costs were $7.8M.

One of the 'travel' articles is about a cruise through the Northwest Passage - now possible due to diminished ice due to global warming  :0(

Hewlett Packard and the mysterious alignment sheets

I have a Hewlett Packard all-in-one printer. I wish I didn't. The print cartridges are expensive and every time I load a new cartridge the machine spits out an alignment sheet. I am then supposed to put the sheet on the scan bed, scan it, and this completes a magical alignment process which is supposed to make my print quality better. This also happens when I power up too. Page after page of wasted ink, wasted paper.

In my view this process makes no difference to the print quality, is irritating and time consuming, and is not helping me reduce my impact on resources.

I googled the problem and found a lot of others anguished about the same issue. I got onto the HP forum (you have to register to do this, another waste of time - I can't imagine why HP needs to know the identity of everyone raising questions about their products) and followed their advice...which is basically to keep aligning, try cleaning, maybe even try buying yet more cartridges to see if they work. But they didn't address the underlying problem - why can't I choose NOT to align.

I've raised that question.  Will wait to see what happens.

This raises a diffcult question for me - the kind of environmental paradox that has no clear answer.  Is it better for me to continue using this HP product while it  (deliberately? surely not) wastes cartridges, packing, paper ink and power, but I am not throwing away the product itself.  Or is it better for me to get rid of this product and find a greener alternative.  Hm, I think probably holding onto the printer has to be the best option...?

Certainly, if something untoward happened to the printer, like it died a natural death, or someone in a fit of rage put a hammer through it, I would not, under any circumstances, buy another HP printer.

Goodbye Amnesty International

Well not quite goodbye. Amnesty International are a top organisation, one of the best. If you don't know about them you should check them out here and donate some money.
Amnesty International

I am an Amnesty member and I donate monthly. But I've asked them today to stop sending me letters. I get lots of letters from them telling me about some pretty horrific things that are happening around the world, sometimes asking me for more money. Printed letters, with glossy printed leaflets, and return envelopes. I have on occasion donated extra money, but usually I hold onto the letters for a while, and then feel guilty about throwing the papers in the recycling.
If I think back from when I throw this paper in the bin there is a whole chain of waster power that has generated these letters that I don't want. The postie drove them to my postbox. Some machine probably packed the envelope. The leaflets were printed. The reply envelope was printed. The letter was printed. The paper was transported to the printers. The Ink was transported to the printers. The ink was manufactured. The paper was manufactured. The raw materials were transported to the manufacturers. Hell's teeth. The raw materials probably include some trees that were pulled out of a forest that had been capturing carbon. An endless cycle of energy use and waste for a letter that I didn't want that I threw in the recycling.
So, I've asked Amnesty not to send them. I hope they listen. I've also asked them to stop calling me too. The decision not to get letters goes with the decision that I will probably not donate more. That is a very hard decision. If I donate more to anyone it will probably be to WWF or someone who is doing something about climate change. Well, never say never. I still get emails from Amnesty...or did I unsubscribe??!