Way more than half of my mail ends up in the bin. It seriously has gotten out of control. Flyers, insurance marketing, business solicitations, and meaningless other types of junk litter our mailboxes and usually end up in a landfill unless we recycle them. But why wait to receive them to just turn around and recycle them when we can stop the junk from getting created in the first place. Save the trees!! I’ll be honest with all of you, for me, stopping my junk mail has been the most challenging and tiring zero waste activity to date. I once stayed on the phone with AT&T for over an hour to stop getting marketing junk to switch to their service. Yes, I was only getting something from them once a month, but it was still waste that I was committed to stopping. This challenge definitely takes commitment. Thankfully enough, there are a few websites now that will aid in our junk mail reduction endeavor. This is not to say that you won’t have to make a few phone calls here and there to get some junk mail stopped but this is a place to start.
www.catalogchoice.org
Catalog Choice offers a free service that helps you stop unwanted junk mail and magazines. Just create an account, select the companies from which you want to stop receiving mail, and that’s it!
www.41pounds.org
This service will stop nearly 80%-95% of your junk mail and catalogs. This service costs $35 and a donation of $10 will be given to one of their partner organizations like American Forests, Animal Haven, The Center for Biological Diversity, Trees for the Future and others.
www.optoutprescreen.com
This online service allows people to “opt in” or “opt out” of insurance and credit card offers. OptOutPrescreen.com is the only internet website authorized by Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion for this purpose under the FCRA.OptOutPrescreen.com will not contact consumers via email, telemarketing or direct mail solicitations.
dmachoice.org
Removes you from certain mailing lists.
Other steps you can take are:
- Opt for online bill pay as much as possible.
- Do not give out your address on online forms and solicitations.
- Contact your local post office and ask to stop getting flyers.
- Cancel your weekly newspaper subscription and subscribe to the online version.
- Cancel your magazine subscriptions and subscribe to the online versions.
- Get a “No Junk Mail” sign on your mailbox or door.
PaperKarma is another good one.