Junk Mail In Modern Times

Unlike spam, junk mail is something which I can't simply filter out. Every morning I wake to find two or three items of unsolicited post in my mailbox, largely from real estate agencies keen on buying my flat. I guess I should be grateful for the interest, but I just find it annoying, even more so with behaviourial modifications I've had to make for the sake of modern considerations. I'll explain.

In the past, the mail used to go from the mailbox straight into the rubbish bin. Of course, nowadays, I realise that if it ends up in some waste mountain I am not only polluting the environment, I am causing some poor tree somewhere to give up its life for the benefit of making me aware of a new pizza parlour opening round the corner which does home deliveries. So of course, I have to recycle the junk mail.

Then of course, we are constantly told that we need to be vigilant that our identities are not stolen, and that addresses and all other personal information must be shredded. My shredder can't take the full thinkness of an envelope and its contents which means that I actually have to open my junk mail so that my address can be pulverized.

So, from junk mail arrives to junk mail is chucked out, my current pattern is junk mail arrives, I open frickin' junk mail, I shred the damned envelope and then I recycle both the contents and the shredded envelope. I have to say that I totally resent the extra effort involved for a piece of paper I never even asked for.

Grrr!

P.S. If you were wondering, the picture is of the hamster powered paper shredder: the hamster runs around and makes its own litter. How cool is that!