MailStop Mobile

An app to help you rid your life of junk mail and catalogs.
If you want to stop receiving undesired paper catalogs and mailings, this iPhone app is for you. MailStop Mobile lets you use your iPhone to submit photos of the unwanted items (using the camera to capture the label with your name and the sender’s information). The app sends an “opt-out” message, on your behalf, to the firm that sent the undesired mailing to you.

MailStop Mobile is a product of Catalog Choice, a nonprofit group focused on reducing solid waste and promoting better direct mail industry practices. The program was launched in 2007 to promote sustainable business activities.

When you download the MailStop Mobile app, you set up an account with Catalog Choice. Once you’ve logged in, you can monitor the status of the opt-out requests you’ve submitted as well as opt out of receiving telephone directories. For a fee, Catalog Choice offers other programs that let you take additional steps to protect your privacy and reduce unwanted mailings.

The Catalog Choice website alerts you to the environmental benefit of what you, and all other MailStop Mobile users, have done by reducing unwanted mailings. While recycling unwanted mail is good, pre-cycling efforts like MailStop Mobile, that avoid the waste in the first place, are even better.

Price: Free