More than 100,000,000,000 pieces of junk mail are received by Americans each year. 1/3 of all the mail delivered in the world is U.S. junk mail. Can you believe it? 44% of junk mail is never opened and devastatingly, only 22% of that is recycled. Junk mail alone uses 100 million trees, wastes 28 billion gallons of water and pumps 2.8 million cars worth of C02 into our atmosphere annually. And on average Americans spend 8 months of our lives opening junk mail. What? Let’s stop the craziness, here are 4 ways to stop the junk mail:
- Sign an online petition supporting a national registry to stop junk mail at donotmail.org.
- Go to OptOutPrescreen.com to opt-out of Credit Bureaus sharing your information with junk mail distributors.
- Stop Catalogs at Abacus Catalog Alliance.
- Try a service like Tonic Mailstopper that will stop 90% of your junk mail in only 90 days or 41pounds.org which will stop most junk mail for 5 years.
Or if you are really talented like Sandy Schimmel Gold, you can turn your junk mail into beautiful mosaic portraits. My absolute favorite is “Natasha’s New Pajamas.” It would look fabulous in my Asian themed living room.
What steps have you taken to stop junk mail? Or do you recycle it into fantastic art?
awesome post!
I usually recycle it or use it for packing mail art 😉
I hardly get any junk mail now but I used to get tons. I signed up with the opt-out link you posted here, I signed up with catalog choice (I think that is the name of it), and I also did my own thing. When I would or do get a piece of junk mail, I find their website and email them to remove me from their direct mail marketing list. This has gotten me off TONS of mailing lists. If they do not have a website, I will call them if a number is provided. I will also return their mail to them in any postage paid envelopes marking the mail they sent me with a note saying to remove me from their mailing list. Everything else gets recycled. I now get hardly anything in the mail that I don’t want.
Hi Jenn,
Packing material is a great idea.
xo.