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Stop Junk Mail!
The junk mail Americans receive in one day could produce enough energy
to heat 250,000 homes.
We don't usually think of junk mail as an environmental hazard--just a nuisance. If you save all of the unwanted paper you will receive in the mail this year, you would have the equivalent of 1.5 trees. So would each of your neighbors. That adds up to about 100 million trees every year.
Did You Know?
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Americans receive almost 2 million tons of junk mail every year.
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About 44% of the junk mail is never opened or read.
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Nonetheless, the average American still spends 8 full months of his or her
life just opening junk mail.
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Junk mail is made possible by the U.S. Postal Service policies that enable
bulk carriers to send presorted batches of mail for their minimum rate of
10.1 cents per piece.
- If only 100,000 people stopped their junk mail, we could save about 150,000 trees every year. If a million people did, we could save some 1.5 million trees.
Simple Things To Do . . .
- Write to : Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, P. O. Box 9008, Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008. They will stop your name from being sold to most large mailing companies. It won't affect the lists of companies that already have your name (you may write to each of them to get off of their mailing lists), but it will stop new ones from buying it and it will reduce your junk mail up to 75%.
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Reuse single sided junk mail as scrap paper for phone messages, art paper
for children, printing drafts from the computer, etc.
- Recycle the junk mail you already get. If it is printed on newsprint, toss it in with the newspapers. If it is quality paper, make a separate pile for it; many recycling centers accept both white and colored bond paper. Envelopes are recyclable too, as long as the plastic windows are removed.
Source: 50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save The Earth
Copyright 1989 by The Earthworks Group
Pre-printed "junk mail cards" you can send to companies to get your name removed from their mailing lists are available by contacting the County Recycling/Environmental Coordinator at (810) 667-0452.
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