No More Junk Mail
March 29th, 2008 . by Bryan A. McCarty
Love the Do Not Call registry? Wish there was something similar for junk mail?
American mailboxes are inundated with junk mail. More than 100,000,000,000 pieces of junk mail are delivered each year. If you do the math, that’s more than 800 pieces of junk mail per household. I think it’s time for a national Do Not Mail Registry!
Luckily, there’s an organization taking the stance and launching the movement: DoNotMail.org.
In 2003, Congress created the national Do Not Call Registry, the most popular consumer rights bill in history. Today, DoNotMail.org has launched a comparable registry to end the ambush of junk mail. Currently, they are counting names on a petition (20,000 and counting) to show the government and direct mail industry that there needs to be an easy way to opt out of junk mail.
Junk mail in the United States accounts for 1/3 of all mail delivered in the world. Even though 44% of that mail goes to the landfill unopened, people spend 8 months of their lives dealing with it all. Junk mail invades our homes, wastes our time and destroys the environment:
- The greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the manufacturing of the 6.5 million tons of paper required for junk mail annually is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emission of 3.7 million cars.
- More than 100 million trees a year are cut down and made into paper for junk mail. Those trees come from Endangered Forests like Canada’s Boreal and Indonesia’s rainforests - forests that play a critical role in the fight against global warming.
Just as the Do Not Call Registry liberated Americans from telemarketers, a Do Not Mail Registry would give us the choice to halt junk mailers from violating our privacy, wasting our time and damaging the environment.
Free your house from junk mail and sign the Do Not Mail registry petition. Take a stance and help save the environment. It’s time to end the junk mail catastrophe.
