Welcome to my blog feature called Guilt-Free Green Tips. These are easy action steps you can take to be a little greener, and each mini post will feature one tip. Choose the ones that appeal to you, and learn what eco benefits a single, simple step can make.
How to Eliminate Junk Mail
Your mailbox is bombarded with catalogues, credit card offers, store promotions and direct mail advertising. Aside from being annoying, that’s a lot of wasted paper. You can choose to reduce or eliminate the amount of junk mail you receive.
By Dvortygirl CC-BY-SA-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Here’s a list of places that will do it for you (most are free). It takes just a few minutes online to sign up for a service, although it may take 60-90 days to be fully junk mail-free.
- Direct Marketing Association
- TrustedID Mail Preference Service
- 41Pounds.org It costs $35 for 5 years but they claim to be the most effective service, and they donate to your favorite charity when you sign up.
- Stop the Junk Mail For $19.95 per year, you can stop residential or small business junk mail and get a tree planted in your name.
- OptOutPrescreen.com Specifically for stopping credit card offers
- Remember, you can always contact companies directly to get taken off their list.
How Does This Help?
- You save money. (Americans spend about $370 million each year to dispose of junk mail that isn’t recycled.)
- You save trees since about 100 million are cut down every year to make junk mail.
- You help keep landfills free of junk mail (about 44% ends up there unopened).
- You get back 8 months of your life (or about 70 hours a year) that’s typically spent dealing with junk mail.
