Junk Mail Madness - How to Make it Stop!

Every time we embark on a new year, I think about all the extra junk and clutter that has accumulated over the last. Two areas that I would like to cut down on even more is junk mail and phone calls from telemarketers. One is downright wasteful and the other is utterly annoying. We’ve been working on the many harassing phone calls we get each day using caller ID and blocking through the Do Not Call Registry, but my mail is still teeming with junk.

Along with marking your mailings, “Return to Sender” and sending it back to the culprit, you can also open the ones that have pre-paid return envelopes often and send it back with a firm request to be removed from the mailing list. I like this idea and I don’t. It’s free and easy, but the junk mail still gets printed and mailed, so it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get off the list and it adds to the destruction of more trees.

This subject is not new to Care2. Mel outlines in her articles how to use sites such as 41 Pounds and Green Dimes to irradiate those pesky fliers.

Heather Levin from The Greenest Dollar adds some additional insights learned from her experience of cycling the junk out of her life. Her blog reveals some pretty shocking facts about junk mail:

“According to experts we’ll spend 8 months of our life reading, sorting, and recycling the stuff,” she says. “That’s a lot of time we could be devoting to napping, playing with our kids, reading, or pulling weeds. Anything else, for that matter, besides dealing with junk mail.”

She also points out that junk mail accounts for 1/3 of all mail sent in the United States, adding up to over 800 pieces of junk mail delivered each year to each household.

“Want to know how many trees that is?” she asks. “100 million. Every single year. Just for junk mail. This is equivalent to clear cutting all of Rocky Mountain National Park, every four months.”

And that’s not even the end of it. The emissions created from junk mail each year, according to DoNotMail.org, is the equivalent of the emissions created by more than 9,377,000 passenger cars.

Next: 7 ways to make it stop!

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Michele W.

9:31AM PST on Jan 20, 2012

Thank you

send a green star

Mac C.

2:08PM PST on Jan 7, 2012

thank you for the ideas and the links. Very helpful article.

Judy E.

2:49PM PST on Jan 4, 2012

Sadly, this is an annual necessity.

Tiffany L.

4:41PM PDT on Sep 9, 2011

thanks :)

Anya G.

6:54AM PDT on Aug 14, 2011

Regina P.

6:51AM PDT on Aug 14, 2011

Thanks for providing email addresses.

Kyria J.

7:52PM PDT on Jul 14, 2011

I have also used Catalog Choice (http://www.catalogchoice.org). I like the way they keep my profile. I will faint when one day I no longer get BrylaneHome in my mailbox. Jeez

Alberta G.

4:48AM PST on Mar 2, 2011

Thanks.

A P.

10:47PM PST on Feb 20, 2011

I get most of my junk from charities. It makes me feel bad since it costs them money and postage and wastes trees - since most of them contact me via e-mail anyway.

BeckyJo M.

9:23PM PST on Feb 20, 2011

Thanks for all the helpful links and advise. I've contacted a few-online. And created an account w/the DMA site. Now as I recieve "junk mail" I can go to the DMA site and contact the 'offending' mailer right there.