Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) lets any business pay the Postal Service to put a flyer in every mailbox on a route. It arrives addressed to “Postal Customer,” and households have no way to opt out.
2,689 people have signedChange.org count, updated every 6 hours
Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) is a USPS program, launched in 2011, that lets a business mail an ad to every address on a postal carrier route without knowing anyone's name. It is the flyer marked ECRWSS or “Postal Customer.”
Because it uses no mailing list, the usual opt-outs cannot touch it. There is no list to be removed from and no Do Not Mail registry. The only exception is an advertiser that agrees to mark your address “Do Not Deliver,” and you have to ask each one.
What the Postal Service itself reports about the program, with the source for every figure.
Pieces of advertising mail the average household received in fiscal 2025
Households headed by someone 65 or older got 529.
Share of advertising mail households threw away without reading
Ads from companies a household had no relationship with were read only 36% of the time.
EDDM pieces the Postal Service delivered in fiscal 2025
Nearly 3 billion, by USPS's own count.
Source: USPS Postal Facts, FY2025
What an advertiser pays to put an EDDM flyer in your mailbox
Less than a third of a Forever stamp (82 cents). Commercial mailers pay from 25.9 cents.
Source: USPS Notice 123 and USPS EDDM page, since July 12, 2026
EDDM's share of Postal Service revenue ($617 million of $80.5 billion)
EDDM is profitable per piece, but far too small to keep USPS afloat.
Postage credit USPS is offering mailers who send more advertising mail in 2026
Saturation mail qualifies. The Postal Service is paying for more of it, not less.
Source: USPS PostalPro, Mail Growth Incentives, calendar 2026
Federal law (18 U.S.C. 1725) bars anyone but USPS from putting mailable matter in your mailbox, and the Supreme Court upheld that rule in 1981. You own the box. You do not decide what goes in it.
EDDM carries no name and often no street address, so there is no list entry to remove. Write “Refused” on it and the Post Office simply throws it away. The advertiser is never told, and next week's flyer still comes.
Advertising was 52% of everything USPS delivered in fiscal 2025 (USPS). Marketing Mail revenue rose 12.3% from April to June 2026 (USPS), and this year USPS is paying mailers a 30% postage credit to send more of it (USPS PostalPro).
Email has the CAN-SPAM unsubscribe link. Phones have the Do Not Call Registry. No federal law lets a household turn down saturation advertising.
No single step stops EDDM. These three cut what can be cut, and ask for the rest.
USPS tells EDDM advertisers to list any customer who asks to be removed in the “Do Not Deliver Address” column of the facing slip that goes to the post office with the mailing. It works one sender at a time, and only if the sender agrees.
OptOutPrescreen (free) ends prescreened credit and insurance offers. DMAchoice ($8 online, 10 years) cuts promotional mail from many companies you don't do business with. Catalog Choice (free) handles catalogs.
Sign the petition below, and tell your members of Congress, who oversee the Postal Service, that households should be able to say no once.
The petition asks USPS to create an official way for households to opt out of EDDM and other ECRWSS saturation mail. Zero Junk Mail founder Jake Waitzman started it on Change.org in January 2020.
2,689 people have signed since January 2020.
Count from Change.org, checked October 7, 2026. Updated every 6 hours.
Plus 42 more states and D.C.
2,394 signers with a U.S. ZIP code, by state, from the January 2026 Change.org signature export.
Comments left on Change.org by people who signed the petition. First names only.
This issue and the surrounding practice of unsolicited mailing upheld by the US postal service represents a major misallocation of our Nation's resources. Our forestry resources, petroleum resources, and the time of citizens who must sort through this daily deluge of unwanted paper.”
It is beyond absurd that we are now FORCED by bully tactics to accept this ocean of unwanted junk mail. I live in an apartment and because six years ago the previous tenant ordered a service, I get weekly ads stuffed in my mailbox that I cannot stop.”
I have a mountain of paperwork, and most of it is advertising mail. I shouldn't have to pay a 3rd party service to 'reduce' the advertising mail I receive. Most people throw away this mail without reading it, what a waste of resources!”
My mailbox is a local community type box. It is small and a few blocks away from my house so I do not check it every day. It has gotten overfilled and they took all the mail out and I had to go pick it up at the post office.”
EDDM unsolicited mail wastes my time and hurts the environment. I do not want this mail. I should have the right to opt out of it.”
It's all trash, trash, TRASH! Maybe if we all do our part and send the right people these messages, they'll realize the hassle of having to retrieve, sort, just to transfer such junk to the trash receptacle.”
I was injured and briefly hospitalized during late April. My mailbox became too full within 5 days due to junk. USPS stopped service. Even though I called and emailed to explain my injury, I was forced to go pick up mail at the post office.”
When I get unwanted junk mail like through EDDM, I usually go out of my way to make sure my family and I never give those solicitors our business. I also return everything to sender so they incur an additional cost.”
ECRWSSEDDM is unacceptable harassment by USPS as a way of increased revenue. Fine them. Make it illegal. At least provide an opt-out. Postmasters do not listen, do not care.”
Right now as essential workers during the COVID-19 epidemic, postal workers are risking their lives for us. It doesn't sit well with me that they are risking their lives delivering junk mail that goes straight into the trash.”
I've been asking Capital One to stop sending me offers for 2 years straight. Every few months when I get a new offer, I call them up, and they tell me to wait 40 days. Then I receive another offer.”
USPS has been unjustly enriched on the backs of unsuspecting home owners not given a choice on what to receive in their mailboxes. USPS only cares about revenue to promote its crumbling operations.”
Junk mail is a waste of time and goes directly in the trash. The junk mail may be what is keeping the Post Office in business as most communication is electronic.”
Contributing with the intent to keep my inbox from being filled to the brim with unwanted and unsolicited junk. It's time for someone, ANYONE, to finally stop passing the buck and take responsibility for this.”
It boggles the mind that there is no way to opt out. This should be the standard. I don't want to contribute to the wasteful production and transport of advertisements I'm going to throw out without reading.”
I'm perplexed at how this is even still legal. The waste generated by the production of this garbage, only to immediately be thrown into the garbage and landfill, is mind boggling.”
According to the Post Office, they 'aren't allowed' to not deliver these, even though it doesn't have an address on it, and even if the recipient says to not deliver them. This needs to STOP!”
I do not wish to support any agencies who send out reams upon reams of trash mail that is damaging to our environment, unwanted and unsolicited. You must demand a way to opt out of EDDM.”
This system of mailing creates great waste and allows mailers to send potentially offensive material while providing receivers no way to opt out of receiving such material.”
It is ridiculous how much junk mail I get, that ends up in the landfill. Please allow opting out, in order to save our treasure and environment, as well as my sanity.”
Been trying to get off mailing lists for decades only to learn the USPS sells people's names to advertisers. They tell me it is the only way to make money.”
I HATE the waste of paper and energy to send me solicitations for votes, money, purchases, charities. I will seek out my own information for my interests.”
Waste of trees and money in the digital age. You should be able to CHOOSE whether or not you want to receive junk mail, not have it forced upon you.”
Because 100 million trees are cut down every year to produce the junk mail that almost all of us throw out. It's junk. Why would I support that?”
I want zero trash in my mailbox, and this mail is NEVER of any use to me. It only adds to the problems of dealing with waste in our environment.”
Gemeente Vlissingen (in Dutch)
Vlissingen in the Netherlands plans an opt-in system from early 2027: homes without a 'ja/ja' mailbox sticker would no longer receive unaddressed advertising folders. Public comment runs through October 12, 2026, with a council decision due by year's end.
Policy
USPS Newsroom
USPS lost $2.5 billion from April through June 2026. Marketing Mail revenue jumped $440 million (12.3%) as volume grew by 574 million pieces (4.3%), while First-Class Mail volume fell 3.5%.
Industry
USPS Newsroom
Steiner said price increases have lifted mail revenue despite falling volume in 14 of 16 quarters and that USPS has 'more price to take.' Without a legislative deal this year, he said, USPS could close thousands of unprofitable post offices after the New Year.
USPS finances
NPR
Pausing pension payments and a regulator's waiver worth about $15 billion through fiscal 2030 mean USPS no longer expects to run out of cash in 2027, Steiner told senators; agency projections now put a cash crisis between 2031 and 2034.
USPS finances
USPS PostalPro
USPS is offering registered mailers a 30% postage credit on qualifying First-Class Mail and Marketing Mail volume above their 2025 baseline during calendar 2026. Eligible mail includes Saturation and High Density Marketing Mail letters and flats.
EDDM
USPS Postal Facts
USPS's own Postal Facts page says nearly 3 billion Every Door Direct Mail pieces were sent in fiscal year 2025, bringing in about $617 million. EDDM began in 2011 to help businesses send Marketing Mail to customers in a selected neighborhood, city or ZIP Code.
EDDM
You can, but in the United States it has no legal effect on saturation mail. Carriers deliver EDDM to every address on the route regardless of signs. Canada is different: Canada Post stops unaddressed advertising for households that ask.
No. DMAchoice, now run by the Association of National Advertisers, filters addressed mail from companies that check its list. EDDM uses no mailing list at all, so there is nothing for DMAchoice to remove you from.
For addressed mail, use OptOutPrescreen.com to stop prescreened credit and insurance offers, DMAchoice.org for promotional mail, and Catalog Choice for specific catalogs. For EDDM, the only lever is asking each advertiser to list your address as Do Not Deliver on its USPS paperwork.
Yes. Canada Post lets households opt out of unaddressed advertising, the UK's Royal Mail offers a Door to Door opt-out, and a growing number of Dutch cities, including Amsterdam, deliver unaddressed ads only to homes that display a 'yes' sticker.