FACTS

• Junk mail deliveries surpass the number of U.S. Postal Service 1st-class mail.
• Even though 44% of all junk mail is discarded without being opened, people will still spend 8 months of their lives opening junk mail.
• Only 2% of junk mail gets a response.
• Over $350 million taxpayer dollars are spent annually to dispose of junk mail that does not get recycled.
• 100 million trees are needed to produce the annual supply of bulk mail—that’s the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months.
• 5.6 million tons of catalogs and other direct mail advertisements end up in landfills annually.
• The average person receives only 1.5 personal letters each week compared to 10.8 pieces of junk mail—that’s over 500 pieces of junk mail per person per year.
• Paper will take up 48% of our landfills by 2010.

TAKE ACTION TODAY

• Write “Please do not rent or sell my name” next to your name whenever you enter a contest, make a purchase or donation, join a buyer’s club, order a product by mail, subscribe to a magazine, or return a warranty card.
• Call the customer service number of the company or organization that is sending you unwanted mail and ask to be removed from its list.
• Remove your name from several national mailing lists through the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service. You can register online or by mail. This service is available only to residential addresses, and your request is honored for five years.
  • Eliminate unwanted catalogs.
  • Reduce your mail of catalogs and remove your name off of some prospect mailing lists. (Requires a $1.00 fee.)
  • Prevent public disclosure of student directory information.
  • Remove the names of deceased individuals from marketing lists. (Requires a $1.00 fee.)
  • Remove the names of individuals in the care of Caregivers from commercial marketing lists
• Contact major consumer credit bureaus to have your name removed from mailing lists used for credit offers.
• Opt out of prescreened, preapproved, or prequalified offers of credit and insurance. You have two choices: you can opt out of receiving them for five years or opt out of receiving them permanently.
• Stop calls from telemarketers for five years through the National Do Not Call Registry by calling toll-free from your home phone 888.382.1222 or TTY 866.290.4236.

YOU MATTER

You receive more junk mail than regular 1st-class mail every year. By decreasing your junk mail, you’ll save trees, save waste, decrease pollution, save time, and save the mail carrier’s back because he or she won’t have to deliver mail that you don’t read anyway.