Here is one of the 10 ways that Dvice featured that you could become ‘greener’ that is not only tree-friendly, but mailbox and sanity friendly too! It’s a way to cleanse your mailbox of unwanted catalogs, credit card and other assorted offers that we all get via snail mail every day.
A non-profit called 41pounds.org will for $41 (for 5 years!) help to eliminate junk mail by directly contacting those direct mail companies that send you this stuff. In case you’re wondering why the name isn’t 41dollars, it’s because you are sent approximately 41lbs worth of junk mail each year.
Here are some frightening stats from their site:
To produce and process 4 million tons of junk mail a year, 100 million trees are destroyed, 28 billion gallons of water is wasted, and energy equivalent to 2.8 million cars is spent — which produces greenhouse gases and more global warming. In addition, $320 million of local taxes are spent to dispose of junk mail each year.
Here are even more horrendous stats. I’m signing up right now. $41 is a small fee to pay, not to mention that over 1/3 of that amount is donated to community and environmental organizations.
Cheers to the gents at 41pounds for starting up this great idea!
Neat timing on the article. I was going to ask how I can get companies to stop sending me junk mail after receiving 3 credit card applications yesterday.