No Man’s Blog

1. Receipt

So you go into Tesco, buy the paper and a pack of chewing-gum (£0.97) and you get your change and a piece of paper, only to either throw it immediately to the bin, if you’re a good person, or just outside at the pavement (take a look around the entrance of a supermarket and see how many receipts you’ll find on the floor). What an awful waste of paper…Think about it for a second: Millions of people are buying all sort of stuff everyday and apart from the stuff they need they get a piece of paper which, I assume, in 97% of transactions they don’t need, don’t want or both (the picture below is a collection of receipts of an average week). Can’t they ask you if you need a receipt and than print it for you?

Solution: collect and recycle

2. Penny(s)

This is rather personal. How I hate this ugly red coins. Why do we need them for? Just a burden on your wallet/pocket, they usually get piled at different locations all over your place, car, etc. OK, so as i said there probably is some rational-economical explanation to it but try to imagin how nice it would be get rid of these annoying coins…

Solution: collect them all in one place and than once a week/month go out give it to the first homeless person you see (call it your own change for good program).

3. Mail.

Increasingly feels like mediaeval. Can someone explain to me why the hell do I still get (any kind of) mail?   This is even worse than receipt in the amount of wasted paper -appalling really. And I’m not just talking about junk mail – (an act I believe should be completely banned and criminalized) – direct mail, utility bills, bank statement, home insurance, car insurance, mobile phone bills and promotions….enough! We really can do (almost) EVERYTHING online! I’ve recently read on the Guardian that 37% of mail is being thrown to the bin unopen and these figures are rising every year. So, here we have one of the main sources of paper waste as well as identity theft as people just throw them to the bin but the mail keeps coming in…

Solution: First, and obviously – recycle. But apart from that I started contact all the companies I’m in touch with and asked them to stop sending me mail. With some it worked and some not. Also, check out MPS online, they help you getting removed from quite a lot of direct mailing lists of the UK. From the site: "Unwanted, unread Direct Mail has no place in anyone’s home. And if you’re not interested in receiving it, we will update our records for Direct Mail companies to see and adjust their lists as you request".

Whats your thing that probably has some rational explanation to it but nevertheless annoying and stupid?