Every year, 85,000,000,000 catalogs, credit card offers, and other ads are sent to households. It requires literally 100 million trees’ worth of paper, and much of it is unwanted and discarded.
We can do something about it! Try our two-minute, three-step plan.
Step 1. Reduce, Reuse, AND Recycle.
Recycling is one part of the solution, but each one of us alone is a pretty small drop in the bucket. We can make a bigger difference by asking the Direct Marketing Association, which sets industry standards, to commit to cutting waste.
⇒ Join our pledge. Do your part, and ask junk mailers to do theirs. Click to learn more.
Already did this step? Click for Step 2.
Step 2. Opt-Out of Junk Mail.
In a couple of minutes, you can get off catalog and credit card offer lists. Create an account, and select the subscriptions you want to cancel. It’s FREE, FAST, and EASY. You can also sign up for a paid service, which proactively removes you from the lists.
Pick one below:
⇒ Catalog Choice - A free service, though you can upgrade too. Easy to use, with the best track record.Our recommendation.
⇒ 41 Pounds - A paid service that automatically removes you from lists. $41 for five years. We’ve heard mostly good reviews.
⇒ DMA Choice - the industry-sponsored option. Limited to “prospecting” advertisements – it won’t take you off all existing lists. Not as easy-to-use.
Step 3. Spread the word!
1,200 people have already signed, which means nearly a million pieces of recycled mail!
This is a great opportunity – the more people we get involved, the bigger impact we’ll make. Please, help us spread the word. (Just don’t spam anyone!)
SAMPLE EMAIL. COPY THIS INTO A NEW MESSAGE
Subject: Fed up with junk mail?
Dear friend,
Isn’t junk mail annoying? Catalogs, credit card offers, and coupons — and they usually go straight to the recycle bin. In fact, the average household gets more than 700 pieces of advertising mail a year.
It’s not just annoying. It uses a lot of paper — and that means cutting down a lot of trees.
What can we do? The Green Life has prepared a nifty three-step tool to reduce the amount of paper that’s wasted. I just did it. Quick and easy!
Go here to get started: http://www.thegreenlifeonline.org/mailaction.html
Sources and more information:
Center for a New American Dream: “Junk your Junk Mail” - http://www.newdream.org/programs/beyond-consumerism/avoiding-advertising/junk-mail
US Postal Service, 2009 Household Diary Study: Mail Use and Attitudes in FY 2009. http://about.usps.com/studying-americans-mail-use/household-diary/2009/fullreport-pdf/usps-hds-fy09.pdf [note: PDF download]
