Boyung.com

I found out about a couple of services recently that I've decided to try out.  They both work on a similar principle - getting marketers to stop sending you unwanted mail.  The two services are http://proquo.com/ and http://catalogchoice.org.  Basically, you sign up, and select the catalogs and other mailings that you want to stop receiving.  For most of the items, the websites do the rest.  For some, you do have to print out an opt-out request and mail it in, and with a few, you are sent to an outside service to opt out, but the sites gather them all in one place for you.  It's all free, but a couple of the opt-out services (like for being excluded from credit requests from banks that you don't actually work with) have minimal charges of their own that you would need to pay if you want those services.

I've decided to try both of these services out for two reasons.  First of all, it will hopefully reduce the junk that I have to deal with in my mailbox every day.  Second, since I'm getting less junk mail, less paper is wasted printing the junk mail, and less trees are used to make that paper.  It's a win for everyone, except the direct marketers, of course.  In fact, the environment is the main reason that Catalog Choice started up. 

Both services state that it can take up to ten weeks to stop things from being sent, so it'll be a while before I know if the services is work, but even if they don't, it was well worth the attempt, since it only took about fifteen minutes of my time.  If you are like me and are sick of all of the junk mail, I recommend that you try these services out as well.