typically.nl

Over here, we like things neat and tidy. We have institutionalized everything we can think of. This includes junk mail. If you don’t want to receive junk mail, in .nl we have an official sticker you can stick to your letterbox. It’s called a NEE/NEE sticker and you can get it in city hall.

This all started with a campaign from environmental group milieudefensie. They aimed to reduce the environmental burden associated with junk mail and introduced the NEE NEE sticker. It came in two variants:

NEE / JA

This means you don’t want to receive junk mail, but you do want to receive the local free paper.

NEE / NEE

This means you want neither junk mail nor local papers. In fact you don’t want any bulk mailings in your letterbox.

Over the years this sticker became so widely used that government endorsed it. It is pretty well honored too, but it’s not the law. They can stick junk mail into your letterbox even if you have a NEE/NEE. And when the mailing people know you address, all bets are off. Addressed mail will always be delivered, even if it is addressed to ‘the occupants of this house’.