The average person gets only 1.5 personal letters each week, compared to 10.8 pieces of junk mail.
Each person will receive almost 560 pieces of junk mail this year. That's 4.5 million tons of junk mail produced each year!
44% of all junk mail is thrown in the trash, unopened and unread.
Approximately 40% of the solid mass that makes up our landfills is paper and paperboard waste (by the year 2010, it is predicted to make up about 48%).
100 million trees are ground up each year to produce junk mail.
The good news is that it is possible to eliminate most junk mail. Unfortunately, it takes time and patience. I've read that there is a movement to create a "Do Not Mail" service similar to the "Do Not Call" service that is already in effect. Click here for more information on that. The Do Not Mail registry doesn't exist yet but hopefully soon ... and in the meantime, here are a few ideas to reduce or eliminate the junk mail you receive:
When unwanted junk mail shows up in the mailbox one can write, email or call the company and ask to be taken off their mailing list. If something comes along that you'd like to keep, call the company and ask if they have an email version rather than a "snail mail" version.
Search the Internet for ways to eliminate junk mail. You'll get a lot of sites ... some with ideas and information ... some offering a service, usually for a fee.
There's a website that makes it easy to eliminate unwanted catalogs. Their web address is:
https://www.catalogchoice.org/
There is an opt out site for prescreened offers of credit and/or insurance. Their web address is:
https://www.optoutprescreen.com/?rf=t
As always, I would love to hear your ideas for reducing, reusing and recycling. Just click on the comments link, located at the bottom of each post, and let me know what you think and how you conserve.