3 simple steps to reduce your junk mail

Numerous publications state that over 100 million trees are cut down each year in the U.S. to produce Junk mail. Producing, delivering, and disposing of Junk Mail uses a lot of energy. You as an individual can make a small difference but can make a bigger difference if you influence others to do the same. Use the steps below to reduce your junk mail.

  1. Opt-out on your own. Much of your junk mail will likely be catalogs from companies you’ve done business with in the past. Items 2 and 3 below will not stop these. Just make some quick phone calls to stop specific catalogs you don’t want. This also applies to catalogs sent to your address for former residents as well. A typical call to opt out takes less than 2 minutes. For unwanted phone books like the yellow pages, visit their opt-out URL’s which typically takes less than 1 minute.

  2. Use dmachoice.org to reduce unsolicited catalogs and magazine offers. DMAChoice is an online tool put together by the Data & Marketing Association to help you manage your mail. The Data Marketing Association was founded in 1917 and they represent over 3600 companies including most of leaders in the direct marketing community. It takes less than 3 minutes to create a login and opt out of all future mailings. You can also opt out of just select companies if you choose. Note they do charge a $2 online fee for this service and it lasts for 10 years.

  3. Use optoutprescreen.com to reduce the unsolicited offers for credit cards and insurance. Optoutprescreen was established by the major credit reporting agencies and allows you to opt out being included in Firm offer lists. It takes less than 2 minutes to visit the sight and enter your information to opt-out for 5 years. You can also print a form to sign and mail in to opt out permanately.

Example: Pictured below is 1 year of junk mail for my family of 4 (2 adults, 2 children) before doing anything. It weighed in at 88.9 lbs. All of this mail has an Energy Intensive Life Cycle and was never even read. In other words, COMPLETELY WASTED ENERGY! We completed the 3 steps above and collected mail for another year. Pictured below is also our 1 year of junk mail after completing the 3 steps. It weighed in at 52.1 lbs while 18.4 pounds of that still applied to step #1. Some items slipped through while others were new for the year. So the total savings was over 36 pounds and could’ve been over 55 lbs. That sure seems like a lot for just one household.

There are over 127 million households in the U.S. alone. If you applied this to the numbers above as a rough estimate, that would be over 11 billion pounds of junk mail per year with a potential savings of over 7 billion. Wow! That doesn’t even include P.O. boxes or businesses. Please consider reducing your junk mail and influencing others to do the same.