GreenYour.com

Most of us end up tossing the daily influx of junk mail, catalogs, and solicitations that flood our mailboxes. Unfortunately, all that paper adds up quickly to a whole lot of waste, squandered resources, and greenhouse gases.

Direct marketing devastation

Mountains of mail

The mass-marketing industry relies increasingly on direct mail and catalogs to tempt our interest in an ever-growing slew of products and services. In fact, 90 billion pieces were sent in 2000, up considerably from the 35 billion pieces sent in 1980.[1] Every year, each adult in the United States receives nearly 560 pieces, or about 41 pounds, of unsolicited mail.[2]

Carbon and other waste

It's estimated that 100 million trees are used annually to produce all the junk mail that's distributed to US homes.[3] In addition to loss of trees, processing all that paper requires 28 billion gallons of water.[4] What's more, creating and transporting the mountains of mail results in more greenhouse gas emissions than 2.8 million cars produce in a year.[2]

Lack of recycling

A US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study found that in 2005, 5.8 million tons of catalogs and other direct-bulk mailings were distributed in the US, and less than 36 percent were recycled.[5] Indeed, approximately 44 percent of this unsolicited mail is carted to landfills unopened and unread, costing US taxpayers $320 million each year.[2]

Glossary

• direct mail: The term used by direct marketers to describe the practice of sending large amounts of marketing and advertising materials to the public.
• junk mail: Unsolicited mail that appears in millions of American mailboxes each day.

External links

• National Waste Prevention Coalition
• Center for A New American Dream
• Consumer Research Institute
• Native Forest Network
• Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
• Junkbusters - Junk Mail
• EcoCycle - Junk Mail
• Direct Marketing Association
• US Postal Service - Direct Mail