You’ve Got Mail. Junk Mail, of Course

You brought the mail in today, and I know what you found. Your mail looks exactly like mine. You had

1. Bills
2. Catalogs filled with brightly colored and totally unnecessary plastic objects
3. Magazines you will never take the time to read
4. And, an armload of other junk mail

There are credit card offers, coupons for things you don’t want, fliers, insurance offers and the list goes on ad nauseum.

There are no personal letters in there. No one sends personal letters anymore unless they are sending you an “invitation” – to give them a present for graduation or weddings or such.

It’s all just junk. And, what’s going to happen to it? It’s going to sit on the bureau and propagate and make more junk to clutter your house! I swear that’s what happens.

In July 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that there were 227.7 million adults in the United States (“adult” meaning “people of voting age”). We know that all of those people are getting junk mail.

I read somewhere that 100 million trees get pulped every year for junk mail. That’s .44 trees per person wasted on unimportant stuff!

That report didn’t mention the size of the trees, but if my junk mail is any indication, then they must be GIANT Redwoods. Are you planting .44 trees to replace them? I’m not either. We should invent a way to reduce junk mail!

Wait…someone already did.

The Direct Marketing Association has a website where you can enroll to have your name removed from catalog mailing lists (visit www.dmachoice.org/mps ). That site indicates that you can even sign up for catalogs you want to receive (if you are that lonely, I’ll forward the spam e-mails I get to keep you busy!). You can go to www.optoutprescreen.com to remove yourself from lists for those pre-approved credit card and insurance offers.

Now, I can’t guarantee that they work. I’ve just signed up, and the websites claim it can take from 30-60 days for the changes to be effective. If you have tried it, chime in here and let me know.

We have to save those trees…and ourselves!

This journey began on a separate blog (you can click here to read About Out Of Chaos), but that wasn’t really simplifying was it? I moved all of the posts to This Eclectic Life under the category Out Of Chaos. I’ll be adding more from time to time. I hope you join me.

Other posts you might enjoy:

1. That Is Not Junk In The Kitchen Drawer!
2. Buried Under Paper
3. Bottle Tree At Last? Maybe.
4. Any Way You Slice It, They Still Call It Spam
5. My Heavy Foot Leaves A Big Carbon Footprint

Tagged as: environment, junk mail, paper, simplified life