Image courtsey of responsiblefrugality.files.wordpress.com
Just yesterday on my way to pick up my mail I passed a neighbor walking away from the cluster of boxes, shaking her head. As we passed she held up a handful of mail and said, "Look at all this waste. Straight to the dumpster all of it!" I almost wanted to shout back, "Off with their heads," while waving a fist in the air but instead smiled and nodded. However, she really got me thinking about the amount of unwanted mail that goes through our mailboxes each and every year. And that led me to find several easy and quick ways to reduce the waste created by unwanted mail.
Here are some startling facts from EcoFuture.org:
- The majority of household waste consists of unsolicited mail.
- 100 million trees are ground up each year for unsolicited mail.
- It wastes 28 billion gallons of water for paper processing each year.
- More than half of unsolicited mail is discarded unread or unopened; the response rate is less than 2%.
- The result is more than 4 million tons of paper waste each year.
- It is difficult to recycle, as the inks have high concentrations of heavy metals.
- $320 million of local taxes are used to dispose of unsolicited mail each year.
- It costs $550 million yearly to transport junk mail.
- Scarce landfill space disfigures rural areas and pollutes ground water.
- We each get about 40 pounds of junk mail a year, more than a tree's worth per family!
First, Greendimes.com and CatalogChoice.org are websites that helps remove your name from mailing lists and eliminates those unwanted catalogs. Also, WorldPrivacyForum.org is a place to opt out of many types of unwanted mail. (From there, you can also get to DoNotCall.gov for the National Do Not Call Registry.) There is the OptOutPrescreen.com to reduce prescreened credit card offers. These sites work for individuals as well as for businesses, so everyone, register at least one and we can work together to reduce waste and lift some of our guilt for throwing away all that paper!
Comments
RE: Political Direct Mail
We are fighting back.
The National Political Do Not Contact Registry is a non-profit, non-partisan group working to get political calls added to do not call registries.
Join us for 2010.
Shaun Dakin
CEO and Founder
StopPoliticalCalls.org
No Junk Mail signs work well in a number of countries if it is unaddressed mail.
In Australia, we have just launched a new consumer shopping engine that will promote all the same deals from retailers on a fast, fun and easy to use website.
We hope to convince retailers to reduce the number of pages per catalogue per se
We will be launching into other countries over the next two years
Alex
www.storespecials.com.au
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!