Opt Out of Annoying Snail Mail

While looking for more information on combatting junk mail (snail mail, not email), I came across some facts from New American Dream and I thought I’d share them with you. Hopefully this list will inspire you to put an end to your own overflowing mailbox.

Junk Mail Facts and Figures
-Source: New American Dream article, “Just the Facts: Junk Mail Facts and Figures”

• More than 100 million trees’ worth of bulk mail arrive in American mail boxes each year – that’s the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months. (New American Dream calculation from Conservatree and U.S. Forest Service statistics)
• In 2005, 5.8 million tons of catalogs and other direct mailings ended up in the U.S. municipal solid waste stream – enough to fill over 450,000 garbage trucks. Parked bumper to bumper these garbage trucks would extend from Atlanta to Albuquerque. Less than 36% of this ad mail was recycled. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
• The production and disposal of direct mail consumes more energy than 3 million cars. (New American Dream calculation from U.S. Department of Energy and the Paper Task Force statistics)
• Citizens and local governments spend hundreds of millionsof dollars per year to collect and dispose of all the bulk mail that doesn’t get recycled. (New American Dream estimate from EPA statistics)
• California’s state and local governments spend $500,000 each year collecting and disposing of AOL’s direct mail disks alone. (California State Assembly)

If you are anything like me, then you are probably fed up with sorting through 14 peices of junk mail to find the only 1 real letter. Then again, you could be like my wife who is indifferent to the pile.

Here are a 2 steps you can take to get removed from many mailing lists
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