Coral & I recycle a lot (diapers are about the only thing that end up in the actual trash, and Mekhi’s pretty close to being done with those too,) including mixed paper, which is what most junk mail is.

But in 5 days I got 3 Capital One mailings, including one bulked up with bubble wrap, and decided "enough is enough." (Actually I didn’t decide those specific words, but you get the idea.)

I called Capital One and managed to get on the suppression list (I think) using the phone number 1-888-817-2970. They ask for your credit card # initially, tell them you do not have a credit card and want to "opt out of marketing solicitations" as capitalone.com says can be done. They will take your address and phone number.

Then I found these free opt-out systems:

• https://www.optoutprescreen.com/ (the front end to Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion… related to credit-based mailings. Note fields like SSN and phone # are not required… just name and address.)
• http://www.coxtarget.com/mailsuppression/s/DisplayMailSuppressionForm (Valpack coupon booklets… just provide name and address.)
• https://www.dmachoice.org/MPS/proto1_reg.php (The Direct Marketing Agency’s mail preference service. This seems to be the way out of specific catalogs. You can also use credit card authentication to get out of all mailing; I decided not to do that.)

Still wondering how I might escape the Dell catalog.

One thing to think about: will this really reduce the number of junk mail sent by mailers? I don’t think so. Every penny mailers save not sending junk to me will be reinvested in sending more junk to other people, or identifying new people to send it to.

I will let you know if it actually slows down the flow.