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Save Time and Reduce Waste with Better Handling of Flyers & Community Newspapers

July 5, 2009, 7:33 pm
Filed under: lifehacking, Sustainable Living & Social Issues | Tags: advertising, conservation, cost benefit, cost to consumer, decluttering, effectiveness, environmental, flyer, GTD, improvement, incremental improvement, learning, lifehacking, money, newspaper, recycling, save money, social responsibility, sustainable living, tips, waste

I don’t like clutter. I know advertising works (which explains the billions spent on it) the question is… Why would I subject myself to advertising and allow my house to be cluttered just to give someone else my money?

Four times a week we receive a community newspaper. Now the paper is mostly ads, advertisements, paid advertising and ads. There are relevant local articles, but it hardly seems worth the “filtering” to get to the content. Out of 40 printed pages, I’d guess 4 or less actually contain news. Now I don’t believe in mindlessly reading advertisements (and don’t know anyone who will admit to this), but I must admit my relationship to the printed newspapers that appear on my mailbox has been undergoing a transformation.

I was curious what the impact was on my time and on the environment to handle all the paper associated with the unsolicited flyers and community newspapers I receive. To try and estimate the impact on my city, I’m assuming everyone in town does exactly what I do, and I’m believing the newspaper’s circulation figures (averaged to 40,000 per paper) which I found on the Internet. You will see some high dollar figures here, and this is because the cost to consumers is generally left out of the equation and ignored… Retailers don’t incur that cost, it is the consumer’s problem, so why would anyone bother to track or estimate that cost… This is only a rough but fair estimate. Now I’d love to make this more accurate, so if you take issue with the numbers, do us all a favour and contribute some research. Here is the transformation in chronological order:

Handling Flyers and community newspapers (original version 1.0)

Initially we would bring the paper in, sort through the flyers “in case there was something good there”, and put the papers on the coffee table to be read. Then I would flip from front to back through the paper making sure I didn’t “miss anything. So including all the “handling time” bringing in the paper, reading through it. Picking it up off the floor after the small children decorated the room with it. Recycling it. I probably spent 30 minutes per paper and ended up skipping half of the papers completely. The time spent “reading the paper” was time I didn’t spend with my kids etc, so I’m going to think of that cost to me as $20/hour for my like many people earn. The 150 grams estimated weight of the paper is based on Canada Post’s “weight restriction” for mailing community newspapers (mine is probably larger) and 37 grams of flyers. So 150 grams 4 times a week is 0.6 Kg per week or 31.2 Kg per year.

My yearly time spent “handling” newspapers and flyers: 52 hours $1040
My papers and flyers sent to recycling: 31.2Kgs (68.8 lbs)
My city’s yearly time spent “handling” newspapers and flyers: 2,080,000 hours $41,600,000 (this is the cost of consumer’s time!)
My city’s papers and flyers sent to recycling: 1,248,000 Kgs (2,751,369 lbs)

Handling Flyers and community newspapers (updated version 2.0)

Then I recognized the time I was spending “tidying up” these papers all over our living space and I wanted to get the papers re-routed to recycling at the earliest point possible. What I would do is “intentionaly” sit down and skim the newspaper articles for 5 minutes, if there was relevant content I save the paper for my wife and tell her what is worth reading, if not, I recycle it and all of the flyers stuffed inside before the paper even makes it up the stairs to our living space. (Sorry advertisers, your advertising budget was not effectively spent). But this skimming is still an interesting activity to me, I’m not doing it because I am (at that moment) interested in reading the paper or learning something specific, I’m “reacting” to the newspaper being delivered to my door. I’m voluntarily spending at least 20 minutes per week filtering out advertisements…. Hmm, how is it that someone else is “making me” spend time reading their paper…. That wasn’t my idea. Hey I could have used that time for something I WANTED to do.

My yearly time spent “handling” newspapers and flyers: 17 hours $340 <reduced>
My papers and flyers sent to recycling: 31.2Kgs (68.8 lbs) <No change>
My city’s yearly time spent “handling” newspapers and flyers: 680,000 hours $13,600,000 <reduced>
My city’s papers and flyers sent to recycling: 1,248,000 Kgs (2,751,369 lbs) <No change>

Handling Flyers and community newspapers (New Era version 3.0)

So I noticed that when those friendly guys from the “Globe and Mail” would call, I would answer. “Not really interested, I use the Internet.” and they would simply drop it and let me go with no more “sales”… hmmm.. Maybe I could just use the Internet and replace my local community paper… So I testsed this. What I could find online (in several locations) had all the information with much less advertising. In many cases it offered more than the news (videos and such). I bravely asked my wife what she thought and when I learned that she really didn’t use those grocery store flyers I’d been saving for years, our course was set. We put a “No Flyers or Newspapers” sign on our mailbox and suddenly our house is neater, our recycling is lighter, and I’m facing much less temptation to purchase things I would not have otherwise purchased. I’m estimating that I only spend 15 minutes per month looking for local news and information. Only God knows the value of the “impulse purchases” I’m not making.

My yearly time spent not “handling” newspapers and flyers: 3 hours $60 (Internet time) <reduced>
My papers and flyers sent to recycling: 0 Kgs (0 lbs) <reduced>
My city’s residents potential yearly time spent not “handling” newspapers and flyers: 120,000 hours $2,400,000 <reduced>
My city’s could potentially save 1,248,000 Kgs (2,751,369 lbs) of paper from going to recycling (or worse) <Join Me! It’s free!>

Adding back “The Internet”

Sure there is time spent on the Internet to find local information, but I don’t think it is the same as putting a paper on your doorstep. I think that when someone is actually pursuing information, and not just having it “forced” on them, they are able to dig deeper and learn more. Sure I will likely look up some local events using the Internet, maybe 15 minutes per month when I NEED to know something specific. But that is one of the major points I’m making. Newspaper delivery was someone else’s idea that consumed my time and wasted paper.

Other Resources for breaking your flyer addiction

I liked the vision expressed by http://www.reddotcampaign.ca

We are fortunate to live in abundance where one of our major issues is TOO MUCH STUFF! And to keep us buying more, Canadians are inundated with $19 Billion worth of advertising each year. If the old adage is true, “half of all marketing works great, if only we knew which half” why don’t advertisers spend more resources understanding which half works and spend the other half supporting community?

Another small but useful site is: http://www.iwilltry.org/w/index.php?title=Flyers_against_flyers_campaign which advocates convincing your neighbours to join you in giving up flyers. They had some great images you could print out and tape to your mailbox (download the originals from their site).

The Canadian national “Do Not Call List” operated by the government of Canada promises to reduce phone based solicitation. https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/
The “Canadian Marketing Association has a “Do not Contact Service” designed to get your name on a list their members might check before sending out mailed advertisements. http://www.the-cma.org/?WCE=C=47|K=224217
A ?grassroots? attempt to produce a better “do not call list” http://www.ioptout.ca/ trys to overcome limitations with the “Do Not Call List” (charities are not restricted etc).

(Use the comments to evaluate the usefulness of these links).

Please comment to let me know what you think of all this. Do you have paper taming tricks? ways to find local information that work for you? Would you consider joining me with a simple “no flyers or newspapers” sign on your mailbox? Why or why not?

Cheers,
Greg

1 comment

Save Money – Give your things away!

May 7, 2009, 6:18 pm
Filed under: lifehacking, Sustainable Living & Social Issues | Tags: cost benefit, environmental, free, lifehacking, money, save money, social responsibility, sustainable living, tips

I’m going to let you in on a little secret… The beauty of this secret is that it scales really really well, so the more people you tell, potentially the more people who can contribute and benefit.

freecycle logo

I’m talking about free-cycle. You probably have a free-cycle group operating in your area. The concept is really simple. If you want something, you ask for it, and if somebody wants to give you that thing, they will contact you to come and pick it up. If you have something you want to get rid of, you post it and people will contact you to come and pick it up.

Our family started with a micro-wave stand. We probably could have got $15 bucks for it, but really… I don’t want to operate a garage sale, I don’t want to fight with someone over whether I’ll take $12.50 rather than $15, and well I really just want to get rid of it so it doesn’t waste my space. My “interest” is unloading something I don’t want to keep in my house. The other person’s “interest” is in getting a free microwave stand. The environment’s “interest” is that a piece of furniture did not need to be manufactured, stored, shipped and sold. (We’ve previously talked about “The Story of Stuff”) The object’s “interest” is that it becomes useful rather than just wasting space. Sound “interesting?”

This truly is “re-cycling” something useful to another person. Because there is no exchange of money or other consideration, the opportunity for fraud / theft etc is super low (making this safer than other systems where money is exchanged for goods).

It works quite well, and I’m really pleased with the free wooden rocking chair I’m looking at across the room. Not everything you ask for will be given. “Lego” is a hard sell. Nobody wants to give up their “Lego”! It is an email group. So don’t use your work email. use a “junk email” that can receive a steady stream of offers.

Getting started with free-cycle.

1. Chose a “junk” email address to use, because you are going to get lots of emails.

2. Find a group in your area by visiting free-cycle.org and typing in your city

3. Read the “rules” (guidelines) so you learn what kind of behaviour fits with free-cycle

4. Start reading and respond to items that interest you.

It is better to give than to receive. Freecycle helps you do both in a way that is responsible; socially, fiscally and environmentally.

Cheers! Enjoy the free stuff.

Greg.

1 comment

The Value Proposition – Being content with the price you pay

April 14, 2009, 7:23 pm
Filed under: lifehacking, Quality, Excellence & Design, Sustainable Living & Social Issues | Tags: auction, bargain, compare, cost, cost benefit, haggling, learning, lifehacking, markup, money, price, price tag, price versus value, quality, retail, save money, social responsibility, value proposition

I grew up in a world where the price on the price tag was the price you paid. Being a shrewd consumer involved shopping around for the same product with a lower sticker price. Although I did attend an auction or two in my childhood, that was an experience far removed from our weekly shopping trips. I grew up learning that price was important, but quality was also important so the product would last and not need replacement or repair. So sometimes paying a little more for better quality meant conserving money in the long run. I want to pay the least and conserve my money for use elsewhere, but with a growing understanding of where our products come from, I won’t knowingly choose a low price at the expense of others or the natural environment. In this journey from fact to face negotiation, to automated Internet transactions and corporate marketing strategies, It is easy to lose sight of the people on the other sided of the transaction whose welfare must remain a part of the equation.

(flickr credit: sharpstick's photos)

In married life, the Internet has allowed us to compare prices without actually having to visit stores (much like the telephone allows), in fact we can compare prices without actually interacting with another person. It feels like a safe anonymous inexpensive activity. Ebay started introducing us to live on the wild side by bidding for things at “less than” the asking price. Until recently this was the extent of our financial education until I met my friend Cindy at work and she introduced me to the idea of “asking for a better price”. “The worst they can say is no” she explained. So in small ways I began to assert my desire for fairer prices. Saving $200 on fees associated with buying a car, saving $15 off the price of a pair of shoes. Spotting inconsequential defects and asking the cashier for a deduction.

Experience has eroded my confidence that retail prices accurately reflect value

I remember being shocked to observe retail markup first hand when i worked at the garden centre. I saw two things that forever changed my view on pricing.

1. The first was observing products coming in at a wholesale price and immediately being marked up to a retail price that was 2 times the wholesale. The $4 items became $8 items, and the $40 items became $80 items. I was alarmed that at the garden centre 1/2 of every price was basically profit.

2. The second was re-potting plants. When a plant outgrew its 1 gallon pot, we would pull it out and place it in a 2 gallon pot surrounded with fresh dirt. So on Friday the shrub was a 1 gallon plant for $4 and on Saturday it was a 2 gallon plant for $7. In some cases the re-potting would only be half complete, and customers would pass over the 1 gallon shrubs to purchase a 2 gallon shrub (the plants were identical).

I think you will share some of the other experiences I’ve had;

Gas wars where 2 gas stations compete on price and the cost of a litre of fuel drops and drops to ridiculous prices (like 1cent for a litre).

(flickr caption: Micah Maziar)

Electronics where the retail price drops month after month, while other electronics like the Nintendo Wii where the retail price remains constant for years.
Recently crude oil prices plummeted while gasoline prices remained at record high levels for over a year.

Clearly the retail price is not a reflection of value in all cases. The prices rise and fall despite constant demand and identical products. The prices you see are not the direct result of a “market effect” but rather the contrived price of marketeers. In some cases, nobody pays the same price, such as in the case of “yield management” where the airlines use complex formulas in their attempt to extract as much money as possible from each customer for a seat on the same plane.

Very recently on a trip to Mexico, I saw how a silver right for $80 could be purchased for $35. How? by haggling. A bead bracelet for $5 becomes 2 for $7 at a cost of $3.50 each. Now there are the long faces and the sad stories of large families at home in need of money, but don’t tear up, it is a game. In the 5 minutes it took you to pay $7, you supplied 1/3 of the average Mexicans daily wage. This whole process of haggling over prices felt uncomfortable to me. As someone accustomed to paying sticker price. I feel awkward haggling or arguing over price. Because the “price tag” is what the man asked, I feel compelled to pay it. After the face I am faced with the tension (maybe unhappiness) that results from having options in the price I pay. My joy at “finding a good price” is robbed from me when I realize that I could have negotiated a “better price”. When I do haggle for a “better price” I wonder if I got he best price, or did I settle too high?

(flickr credit: Pandiyan)

The only solution I have found to this unhappiness with the prices I’ve paid is the value proposition. What is the value of this to me and given this value am I content with the price I paid for this product. For me the value proposition includes; the price I must pay, the quality of the product, the level of customer service I receive and the social impact of the product through its manufacture and associated labour and waste (explained clearly in “the story of stuff“). If I am content, then it does not matter that someone else got a better price or that the price dropped the next week. I am content, I make my purchase and (unless there is a deal to refund my money when the price drops) I walk away secure that I made a choice and paid a price I was content with.

I wish you success in leveraging the “value proposition” for your own peace of mind in purchasing.

Greg.

For picking a bad password try…

Making your password the same as your username
Use a meaningful name, like your name, your middle name, your mother’s maiden name, or the name of your children, the name of your pets. Basically choose anything someone could read off of your facebook page. Remember if you are really tricky you can REVERSE the name. I’m sure nobody would think of that.
Use significant numbers like a date. Your postal code, your birthday, your aniversary, your kid’s birthday.
Use 0bscenities. No decent hacker would dare type THAT. (Most password cracking software will try them early on because they are very common.)
Science fiction terms, greek letters and mythology. Like; “Data,” “Spock,” “Borg” and “HAL.” “Epsilon”, “Venus”, “Aphrodite”
Computer terms: stay away from “keyboard”; “mousepad”; “megabyte”; etc.
Line-of-sight terms: e.g., “Gateway” because that’s the brand of your computer, or “telephone” because there is one on your desk. Though this can help you remember your password, it is a trick that password crackers are on to. To play it safe, avoid any reference to common objects found in households and offices.
Common phrases: in particular, those pertaining to greeting or getting down to work, such as “Good morning,” “Wake up”, “Hey you” or “Get going.”
Anything related to your login ID: It’s relatively easy for other people to get your login – don’t let it provide a clue to your password! For instance, if your login is “basset” don’t make your password “doglover.”
When choosing an ATM PIN, make sure that the (4) numbers you pick spell a word like “Love” (hardly anyone would think of that one… Sorry if I’m giving all your secrets away.)

For bad password management try…

Put your password on a note and tape it to your monitor. This way an unethical coworker could read and use your account pretending to be you.
Use the same password everywhere. This way if someone gets into one of your accounts, like an online email account, they could figure out what other services you use and use the same password to access those other services.
Base your password on something that will change over time, like the date. “MyBrandNewPasswordFor2001” made sense in 2001, but 8 years later you may find yourself trying out all the intervening years.
Share your password with people who need to “borrow” your accountt, then don’t change the password even after it may have been discovered.
Use an unmemorizable password like; awnf65ayr8f9as6df584 as nobody will argue that it is not secure. This way you will have to write it down. Maybe in the front cover of your daytimer, or in a file on the desktop called password.txt.
When you forget your password, you can rely on the “security questions” like what is your favourite colour to recover your password. Choose easy or predictable security questions. In response to “what is your favourite colour?” choose “Blue” rather than Oceanic815.
Type passwords slowly in full view of those around you.
Never look around at ATMs for hidden cameras which may be watching the keypad.
Do not shield the keypad when using your bank card
Don’t change passwords on electronic door locks with push buttons so the worn buttons can remind you of the numbers in your combination.
Leave Laptop locks and safe combinations “set” so that you can open these items more easily.

There, those should be enough tips to get you started on choosing poor passwords and using them badly. I hope you found this informative despite the tongue in cheek delivery. Watch for an upcoming article on “Choosing and remembering really good passwords”.

Cheers, and safe computing!

Greg.

1 comment

Carpooling puts CA$H back in your pocket

February 26, 2009, 10:41 pm
Filed under: lifehacking, Sustainable Living & Social Issues | Tags: car pool, carpool, conservation, cost benefit, energy, environmental, insurance, lifehacking, money, save, social responsibility, stress, sustainable living, time

By carpooling I probably save over $1500 a year in after-tax dollars. I think there are other advantages to carpooling that you should know about which you may not have considered.

Let me start by saying that I never thought I would carpool. The idea was fine for other people but, I liked the convenience of being able to come and go as I pleased, even though I arrived at work and left work like clockwork. I thought I was probably a better driver than anyone I would carpool with, so from a safety perspective I didn’t want to put my life at risk. I also didn’t really want total strangers in my personal space yet worked in an office that probably had 20 people I knew driving the same commute. So I had objections which no longer apply at this point.

Carpool

In commuting all year with 2 other people on a 1 hour commute, we have gas costs of about $10 per day and the mileage driven is roughly 100km/day.

I have discovered the following benefits when carpooling;

Less wear and tear on my car because I drive about 15,000 kilometers less per year
Less parking costs when we are able to use one parking spot for all 3 of us
We have personally reduced congestion in traffic by taking 2 cars a day off the road
Saving about $1500 a year in gas
By removing 2 cars per day from the road we have each reduced our contribution to air pollution by 2/3rds
By reducing our gas consumption by 2/3rds we are reducing North American dependence on imported oil and conserving existing fuel stocks
By leaving my car at home 3 days a week, my wife can use it to run errands, and we can operate our household on 1 vehicle rather than 2 (Save $1500/year on insurance, Save $2300+ per year on the capital cost of purchasing a car + financing)
Since I drive only 1/3rd of the time, I am less exposed to an accident in my vehicle (which would be on my insurance).
I’ve become a better driver through closely observing how the other drivers drive. Jen calculates an optimal route and sticks to the plan. Claudiu does not sweat the small stuff in traffic and maintains his cool etc…
I experience “debriefing” time on the way home which allows me to get work out of my system with people who will listen, before I get home which benefits my family. Along the same lines, conversing with my co-workers outside of work improves my perspective on things that happen in the office and gives an opportunity for me to solicit input outside of formal work channels.
Those in our carpool have benefited from increased sleep time (mornings only), video time (backseat only), cellphone, reading and crocheting time and “staring out the window” down-time. All of these are best done while someone else is driving.
Improved safety in traffic because there are extra sets of eyes in the car which can help spot hazards earlier.
A team dedicated to getting me home quickly and safely who work together to scan radio and websites for traffic and routing information when traffic get congested. (Reading websites on your phone is not recommended while driving)

Others may realize additional benefits like:

Access to carpool lanes which may reduce commuting time, stress and gas consumption/cost.
Reduced car insurance costs if the number of kilometers they drive and the number of days they drive qualifies them for a reduced premium.

I think this list is pretty impressive, and I never would have seen all of these benefits if I hadn’t started carpooling. In a future post I plan to address carpool etiquette, and getting a successful carpool started. I hope you find some of these reasons compelling to start thinking about whether a carpool could benefit you in your situation.

Leave your comments below if you have any questions or if you have realized other carpooling benefits.

Cheers!
Greg.

5 comments

Useful Portable Apps for Your USB Drive.

February 22, 2009, 1:50 pm
Filed under: lifehacking | Tags: 7-zip, drive, firefox, flash, free, keepass, lifehacking, notepad++, open office, portable apps, rocketdock, security, texter, tool, usb, useful, vlc, xampp

Not only are USB drives now commonplace, but with increasing frequency, applications no longer require installation and can run from those USB drives.

USB drive / USB Key

I got the idea for this post from Cam who observed that KeePass (mentioned previously) was portable. I thought I’d share some portable apps with you that have been really useful.

If you are new to the subject of portable apps, a good place to start learning about them is “portableapps.com“, Wikipedia also has some lists of portable applications to get you started. There are a number of reasons you might want to use portable apps including;

You are borrowing someone else’s computer and don’t want to install software
You are not allowed to install software at work
You don’t want software to clog up Windows’ registry and slow down your computer
There is a set of familiar tools you want to use when moving from computer to computer.
Portable applications that can run from your USB drive, don’t make changes to your computer’s registry startup files or hard disk. (unless you ask them to)
Portable apps won’t set themselves up to load when you turn your computer on.
Sharing your most useful applications is as easy as copying some files

I’ve placed these in order of utility.

Texter – A powerful text replacement utility; we’ve looked at Texter previously

KeePass – Useful for securely storing your passwords We’ve also looked at KeePass previously

Firefox Portable – Run the popular open source browser from your USB key

Notepad++ – Thanks to Darryl for recommending this powerful editor which supports regular expressions and syntax highlighting.

7-zip – A lightweight archiving and compression utility

Open Office – An open source office suite similar to MS Office, which maintains a high level of compatibility with popular office products.

VLC Media player – Is described as a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats; it can play almost anything.

RocketDock – This one is just for fun, but its portable, and makes your applications easily accessible.

Xampp – More for died in the wool geeks, it is a portable collection of Apache web server, the PHP scripting language and the MYSQL database. All open source and freely available, this is the easiest way to run a web server with web applications and data from your USB key. (ever think of your USB key as a web server?) Now you can run any PHP/Mysql web app from a computer without installing a thing. (some assembly required)

Note: Many of these applications come in non-portable versions, so pay attention to which version you get. (I recommend starting with Portable Applications).

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