What happens to junk at the post office

Some residents have a little sticker on the back of their mailboxes to let postal staff know that they don’t want flyers to go in their box.

“If you have told the post office you don’t want flyers, we will put a sticker on behind so that as we’re sorting mail we don’t put the flyers in the box to start with,” said Teresa Williams, spokesperson for Canada Post.

But there are a few items that can get past the sticker, whether they have your name and box number on them or not.

“There are certain exceptions, which have a lot to do with voter information and things from Elections Canada,” Williams said. “As well, community newspapers were selected because in many places, in small communities the only place to get voter information is from the local newspaper.”

Since local newspaper the Jasper Booster began paying Canada Post to deliver copies of its issues into the town’s mailboxes last week, a number of residents have questioned why they still receive it when they’re requested to only get addressed mail.

For a publication to be exempted from the rule, it must qualify as a community newspaper according to Canadian Heritage, and must have a certain percentage of content versus advertising, Williams said.

The program which allows customers to block flyers is called Consumer’s Choice, and it filters such things as unsolicited catalogues, samples and other advertising. 

The number of people who take part is reported to advertisers, who can then alter how many flyers they send out. “[The extra flyers] are not even printed, and that helps in the long run,” Williams said. Of the 2,587 mailboxes in Jasper, flyers don’t go into 859 of them.

In Jasper, junk mail piles up on counters near the door and fills two trash cans. Post office staff won’t recycle unwanted mail, but in Jasper the Lion’s Club has been sorting through and recycling flyers for a number of years, Williams said. 

People generally aren’t pleased when they receive unwanted mail. “That’s always been a difficulty,” Williams said. Residents may request to take part in Consumer’s Choice at their local post office.