I would like to weigh in on Ghislaine Bernard’s letter on the “extra junk mail” that comes with the Kirkland Reporter. This junk mail consists of ads that generate the revenues necessary to publish this community newspaper.  Usually, the advertisers have a contract with the newspaper requiring the paper to run these ads. I suspect that if there were no ads there would be no newspaper.

As to what I do with this “extra junk mail,” I use it to plan my shopping activities for the next week. The Fred Meyer ads have great coupons that I often use; and coupled with the coupons from the Smart Source insert, I find that I am able to cut my grocery bills by quite a bit. The PCC Taste insert is full of bits of information on foods and offers great recipes. Finally, the Michaels’ ads have introduced me to a store that carries a wide array of solutions to everyday problems, such as a kit to replace the inner workings of my battery-powered kitchen clock.

Like the plastic bags, which seem to send the greenies into a tizzy, I reuse these inserts after I am finished with them. I currently have three weeks of inserts on my garage floor with newly dug dahlias drying on them. I use the papers for packing fragile items; and in the summer, I cover my flower beds with the papers and then cover the papers with bark, which is effective in keeping the weeds under control.

Needless to say, I favor the Kirkland Reporter keeping their “extra junk mail” policy. This just goes to show that one person’s perception of incredible waste is another person’s idea of a gold mine.

Laurel D. Lupton, Kirkland