A system and method for handling unwanted physical mail pieces having a sorter and imager which intercepts one or more pieces of physical mail, which produces an electronic image of a front panel of each piece of mail, and which physically retains pieces of mail in temporary physical storage, and which cooperates with an optical recognizer to determine an intended recipient for each retained piece of mail, further cooperating with a server that notifies the intended recipients and receives a choice for disposition of the mail, and including a destruction which destroys said pieces of mail rejected by the intended recipient.