Did you know that the average adult receives about 41 pounds of junk mail each year? All that paper and energy goes to waste as we mostly just put it in the recycle bin – thus adding more energy to recycle it. That’s not cool. Here are a few places that can help us get rid of junk mail before it comes to our homes:
1) http://www.41pounds.org/ - a non-profit organization whose mission (according to their website) is to save:
Time — No credit card offers to shred or unwanted catalogs.
Trees — Keep 100+ million trees in forests, cooling the planet.
Water — Protect 28 billion gallons of clean water.
Climate — Junk mail produces more C02 than 2.8 million cars.
Planet — They donate to your favorite charity when you sign up.
It costs $41 for a membership that lasts 5 years.
2) http://www.greendimes.com/ - a company that works like 41pounds.org – they have three different services choices:
free – more of a do-it yourself situation where you get their info on company lists to opt out of but you send out the letters etc.
premium ($20) benefits are they remove your name from lists and monitor to make sure you aren’t on any more lists. The bonus is 5 trees are planted on your behalf
bundle ($36) comes with the benefits of premium and you get extras like a tote bag, t-shirt and energy saving light bulbs
3) http://www.dmachoice.org/consumerassistance.php - DMA Choice is the Direct Marketing Associations website. Here you will find a lot of helpful information on how to get your name off mailing lists, email lists and telemarketing lists.
To learn more about the impact junk mail has on our lives and on the environment go to: http://www.41pounds.org/impact/
I completely agree. I always get frightened whenever I learn more about how much damage is being done to the earth. I hate how we simply consume, consume and cosume without thinking. It is a terrible cycle that one does not even realise one is in. Missions/companies like this one (41 pounds) help but it is only a start. In fact, I have scheduled two posts later this week on just this topic because I feel so deeply about it. Thank you for sharing the 41pound find - it looks really interesting and the concepts are very clever.
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