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 »  Home  »  home  »  Stopping junk mail
Stopping junk mail
By Green Living Tips | Published  01/22/2008 | home , business
Saving trees by stopping junk mail

According to some statistics, an average adult in the USA receives a whopping 41 pounds of junk mail a year and approximately 44% of this mail winds up in a landfill without having been opened. Imagine that; over a lifetime over a thousand pounds of what is mostly, well, not to put too fine a point on it - crud.

That's far more paper than a fully grown pine tree can provide. Now multiply that by a couple of hundred million people and I'm sure you get the picture. On top of that there's the water needed to create the paper and the environmental impact of inks that can have high concentrations of heavy metals, making the paper difficult to recycle. Then there's the printing process and transportation. Even if recycled paper is used, it's still a lot of resources being wasted.

A while back I wrote about some companies taking the No Catalog Pledge; but they are still a minority. So what do you do to try and stem the tide of junk email clogging up your mailbox and landfill? There's some creative tips here; but a couple of organizations have sprung up in recent times to assist consumers in having their names added to a "no junk mail" list with many companies.

41Pounds

The first is 41pounds.org who claim to be able to stop 80-95% of unwanted catalogs and junk mail. Based on the information you provide, they contact dozens of direct marketing companies and catalog companies and tell them to remove your name from their distribution lists. The service isn't free - it costs $41.00 for 5 years but they state over a third of each new subscriber’s fee is donated to an environmental or community organization of their choice.

Catalog Choice

Catalog Choice has been getting a lot of media coverage in the US of late. I'd also like to thank GLT readers Michele, Cyndy and Lauren for letting me know about this organization! Catalog Choice is a sponsored project of the Ecology Center and endorsed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

It looks to be a fairly simple process - you register online, then using the Catalog Choice search facilities to locate and decline specific company catalogs. It can take at least ten weeks to process your request. Catalog Choice is a free service.

In other countries, we aren't so lucky to have these services. Mail boxes were crammed with over 8 billion pieces of junk mail in 2004 in Australia, and back then the total population was under 20 million. That's a lot of trees. One thing I've found helped was to have a post office box and not to have a letterbox out front. I hardly see any junk.

As for countries such as Canada, the UK etc. I'm not sure of what services are available, if any, to block junk mail.

If you're in the USA, have you used either 41Pounds or Catalog Choice? Is it working for you? Know of other similar services? Share your thoughts below!

If you're from another country and know of effective ways to stop junk mail, please also share those tips below - I'm sure many readers would be very appreciative of the info!


 
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Michael Bloch
Green Living Tips.com
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Comments
  • Comment #1 (Posted by Charlotte)

    For Canada, there is a do-not-contact service (mail, phone and fax) at

    https://cornerstonewebmedia.com/cma/submit.asp

    Sadly, at least for the phone it hasn't reduced the junk I get by much. For mail it's hard to tell; I didn't get much junk to begin with.

    This site only works for addressed mail; for unaddressed mail a sticker on the mailbox seems to help a lot.
     
  • Comment #2 (Posted by Michael - Green Living Tips)

    Thanks Charlotte! :)
     
  • Comment #3 (Posted by ScottB)

    Try here for a lot of great tips for stopping unwanted junk mail!

    http://www.obviously.com/junkmail/
     
  • Comment #4 (Posted by Michael - Green Living Tips)

    Thanks Scott!
     
  • Comment #5 (Posted by Marcie)

    I have used and continue to use Catalog Choice and I love it!
    Its one of the few sites that are Free for those of us in the US.
    Best tip for Catalog Choice is hang onto that Catalog or Magazine when you get it so you can key in the customer code on the catalog for them to process it quicker.
    Catalog choice also allows you to add your own catalogs if its not listed. It might take longer, but its worth a shot!
    It will also show you what catalogs are pending for removal in your account.
     
  • Comment #6 (Posted by Sarah)

    there is also the red dot campaign, I don't have a lot of information about it but I think it comes out of B.C. but I could be totally wrong. It is essentially a citizens movement to stop junk mail. You place a sign on your mailbox. I have no idea how effective its been but heres the website. www.reddotcampaign.ca
     
  • Comment #7 (Posted by Michael - Green Living Tips)

    Thanks for your contribution Sarah!
     
  • Comment #8 (Posted by Elizabeth)

    I started using Catalog Choice about a month ago. So far,only one of about twenty have confirmed they'll stop sending me catalogs. I hope to see more companies agree to stop willingly, but I'll be taking the extra step and calling them directly if they don't :> The cool thing about the site (other than it's free) is they show you the status and if the company refuses to honor the request, they provide the phone number to call.
     
  • Comment #9 (Posted by Michael - Green Living Tips)

    Thanks for the update on Catalog Choice Elizabeth :)
     
  • Comment #10 (Posted by riotborne)

    Whenever I get junkmail (in the U.S.), I just call the company directly and ask that they remove my name. It was took some effort initally, since I had to make a lot of calls. But it really has cut down the amount of junk mail I get.
     
  • Comment #11 (Posted by Sebastian)

    Now that I am in my new home, I've started to shred junk mail and use it as attic insulation to supplement already existing insulation. I also take what few statements I receive in the mail, scan them into my PC and shred them. A pdf file sure beats wasting paper and space with traditional files and the added insulation sure goes a long way in keeping the home warm during our cold winters.
     
  • Comment #12 (Posted by Michael - Green Living Tips)

    Thanks for the tip riotborne.

    Sebastian, do you treat the shredded paper with anything before using it as insulation? I'm just thinking about rodent/fire issues.
     
  • Comment #13 (Posted by dougladner)

    One tip I heard(Andy Rooney maybe?) was to pack all that junk back into their return envelope and send it back to them. It does cost you the price of postage(or if return postage is included even better), but the costs to sort and dispose of that mail will eventually cause them to drop you from their list. Don't know if it acually works, haven't tried it myself, but I'd be interested to hear if this tactic has worked for anybody else. Also, I have to think there's a little guilty pleasure in sending that junk mail back from where it came=)
     
  • Comment #14 (Posted by Tim Henry)

    I started using Catalog Choice and then I moved to MyJunkTree.com and I really like thier service. I normally get an email from teh catalog company within 48 hours so I know it is done. It seemed to take forever to get an update from Catalog Choice. MyJunkTree even helped me stop all the credit card offers, phone books and misc junk mail. Easy and fast service to use.
     
  • Comment #15 (Posted by Michael - Green Living Tips)

    dougladner and Tim; thanks for your contributions; great stuff :).
     
  • Comment #16 (Posted by Steven)

    In the UK there is a website called www.myletterbox.com which helps prevent junk mail being sent, it also gives you the option to customise what you want and do not want which is very good!
     
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