Outdoors - July 2010 Reduce unwanted mail - Reduce unwanted mail

Annoyed by junk mail? It is not only a personal irritant - having to spend the time sorting and managing - but it also has a real impact to the environment. Especially when you consider that 100 million trees are required for just one year's worth of junk mail. Manufacturing the mail involves more than trees of course; lots of water and ink are used for processing, and both may contain heavy metals and volatile organic compounds (chemicals that contribute to ground level ozone formation-smog and respiratory problems). All of the manufacturing and the final delivery of the product to your mailbox require petroleum. If we chose to eliminate just one day's supply of junk mail we would save enough energy to heat 250,000 homes. That is more homes than in all of the city of Minneapolis. 

    A study found that 44 percent of bulk mail was thrown away before it was even opened. What a waste! Do your part and eliminate your junk mail. Unfor-tunately there is not a single do-not-mail list, but instead you must contact whoever is mailing you. The list below is a pretty good start getting to the bulk of the mail. For everything else, send a postcard including any customer identification, asking to be removed from their list. Most of the services are good for five years. After that time you will need to renew.

• Catalog Choice at www. catalogchoice.org/ will allow you to select out of catalog mailings.
• Go to www.OptOutPrescreen.com or call 1-888-5 OPT OUT (1-888-567-8688) to reduce credit card offers.
• Go to www.redplum.com, click on "contact" at the bottom of the webpage and then following the link to be removed form their list. Or call 1-800-437-0479.
• www.valpak.com click on "Contact Us" then "Mailing List."

    Don't stop with junk mail. Save paper by switching to electronic-only documents where possible. Bills and statements are commonly available in electronic formats. This not only reduces stress to the environment, but stress to you in saved time, space and organization. Maybe you can avoid buying that extra file cabinet. Instead create electronic folders on your computer. Remember to backup important documents. An external hard drive, stored apart from your computer, is a commonly used method. Some people chose to subscribe to an online data archive system. And for the paper you do get, remember to put it in the recycling bin.