catalogs.jpgAccording to, donotmailus.org, a website advocating for a national registry similar to that of the National Do Not Call List:

More than 100,000,000,000 pieces of junk mail are delivered each year—that’s more than 800 pieces per household. In fact, junk mail in the United States accounts for one-third of all the mail delivered in the world.

Ummmm…. what was that again??!??!?!:

… junk mail in the United States accounts for one-third of all the mail delivered in the world.

I find this to be pretty shocking to me considering that most people I know pull junk mail out of their boxes and turn around, only to immediately throw piles of catalogs and fliers straight into the trash (this brings up a further point that currently there are no recycling bins available at our BV post office but I’ll save that for some other time).

In case your stomach was not already churning enough, an article from salon.com states,

… the annual greenhouse-gas emissions from the production of junk mail are equal to those of 3.5 million cars. (That figure doesn’t include emissions from transporting and disposing of the stuff.) Beyond that, each year junk mail production in the U.S. consumes more than 96.7 billion gallons of water and more than 100 million trees, ForestEthics estimates.

Further on, the same article states,

Junk mail has nonenvironmental problems too. It exposes you to identity theft and is just a drag to sort through. If you spend five minutes a day dealing with junk mail — shredding credit card offers, for instance — you blow a full 30 hours a year.

So, regardless of whether you find the previous environmentally minded facts relevant to you or not, you may want to at least consider saving yourself at least some portion of that 30 hours of wasted time per year by taking a few minutes to take advantage of ways your incoming junk mail can be reduced. There are several organizations and companies that provide services that contact mailing services and have them remove your name from the list. Three such services are greendimes.com and catalogchoice.org and 41pounds.org. In addition, you may want to sign the petition (and tell your friends about it) from Donotmaius.org to work towards a national anti-junk mail registry.

My husband and I have over the recent years made a focused effort to directly contact companies for catalogs we are not interested in receiving. That, in addition to signing up for one of the aforementioned services, has proven to make a remarkable difference in how much junk mail we receive. In light of the fact that the average adult receives 41 pounds of junk mail per year, I’ve begun to see it as a celebratory moment when I open my mail box and find nothing in it, save a cherished handwritten letter or two.

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