Skip to content

Junk Mail Opt-Out Services and Resources

The junk mail opt-outs, government tools and organizations worth knowing, each checked on its own website in October 2026: what it stops, what it costs, and whether it touches Every Door Direct Mail.

By Jake WaitzmanUpdated Sources linked throughout

Short answer: Addressed junk mail can be cut with a handful of opt-outs: OptOutPrescreen for credit offers, DMAchoice ($8 for ten years) for mail from companies you don't do business with, Catalog Choice for catalogs, and the data broker opt-outs. None of them stops EDDM flyers addressed to “Postal Customer,” which use no list. For those, ask each sender to list your address as Do Not Deliver.

Which junk mail opt-out services work?

Each service covers one kind of mail, so most households need several. All of them work by taking your name and address off mailing lists, which is why none of them reaches EDDM: it has no list.

Source: each service's own website, checked October 2026. DMAchoice's 80%, Catalog Choice's 10,000 senders and PaperKarma's 100,000 mailers are the services' own figures.

What about companies I already buy from?

The list opt-outs leave them out on purpose. DMAchoice doesn't cover companies you have bought from, subscribed to or donated to in the past two years, and the marketing data company Wiland says its opt-out doesn't stop organizations you have dealt with from mailing you. For those, write to the company. This email works for any of them.

Copy-and-paste email: ask a company to remove you

Look for the company's privacy contact in its website footer or privacy policy (often a privacy@ or unsubscribe@ address). Email gives you a dated record of your request.

Subject: Please remove my address from your mailing lists

Hello,

Please permanently remove my name and address from all of [COMPANY]'s direct mail lists, including your own customer or prospect lists and any rented, exchanged or co-op lists you use.

The name and address exactly as printed on the mail I received:

[NAME]
[STREET ADDRESS]
[CITY, ST ZIP]

I have not asked to receive marketing mail from [COMPANY]. If this address came from a list provider, please also ask them to suppress it.

Please reply to confirm when this is done.

Thank you,
[NAME]
Replace the bracketed parts before sending.

Which government agencies can help?

No federal agency runs a Do Not Mail list (why there is no Do Not Mail registry). These official sources are still worth knowing.

  • California DROP, for California residents only. One free request asks every data broker registered in the state, more than 600 of them, to delete your information, and brokers must re-check for new matches at least every 45 days. The California Privacy Protection Agency, which runs it, also publishes the state's data broker registry.
  • Federal Trade Commission: How To Stop Junk Mail. A short federal guide to DMAchoice and OptOutPrescreen. It still lists DMAchoice's old $6 fee; DMAchoice now charges $8 online.
  • USPS: Refuse unwanted mail. The Postal Service says mail “does not have to be accepted” and points to DMAchoice. It doesn't mention EDDM, and refused “Postal Customer” mail is thrown away rather than returned (why refusing EDDM doesn't help).

Which organizations work on junk mail?

  • Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. A San Diego privacy nonprofit founded in 1992. Its free database of registered data brokers links to each company's privacy policy, which is where opt-out instructions are found.
  • Eco-Cycle. A Boulder, Colorado, zero-waste nonprofit whose “How to Stop Junk Mail” guide walks through getting off direct marketers' lists.
  • The Story of Stuff Project. The environmental nonprofit that has run Catalog Choice since 2014.
  • Stand.earth, formerly ForestEthics. As ForestEthics it campaigned for a national Do Not Mail registry in the 2000s, and its 2008 report on junk mail's climate footprint is the origin of several statistics still in circulation. It took its current name in 2016.

Where do this site's numbers come from?

From the agencies that measure the mail. Every figure on this site names its source and year; these are the ones we rely on most.

We no longer use the junk mail statistics that circulated in 2007 and 2008, the tree, water and carbon totals among them. They describe a year when advertising mail volume was nearly twice today's, and several were credited to the wrong source. What the environmental numbers show now.

Sources

  1. Experian: Opting out of preapproved offers (OptOutPrescreen), accessed October 2026
  2. Federal Trade Commission: How To Stop Junk Mail, updated April 9, 2026
  3. DMAchoice (ANA): Consumer Choice Tools, accessed October 2026
  4. DMAchoice (ANA): FAQ, accessed October 2026
  5. Catalog Choice: About, accessed October 2026
  6. The Story of Stuff Project: Catalog Choice
  7. PaperKarma: About, accessed October 2026
  8. Valpak: Unsubscribe request, accessed October 2026
  9. Save: Manage mailings and data, accessed October 2026
  10. DirectMail.com: National Do Not Mail List, accessed October 2026
  11. Wiland: Privacy Choices
  12. USPS: Every Door Direct Mail (Do Not Deliver Addresses)
  13. California Privacy Protection Agency: DROP, accessed October 2026
  14. California Data Broker Registry
  15. USPS FAQ: Refuse unwanted mail and remove name from mailing lists
  16. USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.3, simplified addresses and disposal of undeliverable mail
  17. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse: About
  18. Eco-Cycle: About us
  19. Wikipedia: Stand.earth
  20. Environmental Protection: Report: Junk Mail Weighs Heavy on the Carbon Scale (ForestEthics), August 18, 2008