Junk Mail
Junk mail…argh…bane of my existence! We work so hard to move toward zero waste in our house and then we go to the mailbox, and WHAMO! there’s a bolus of junk!
New York University Law School posted some statistics they gathered on junk mail in the United States:
- 5.6 million tons of catalogs and direct mailings end up in US landfills every year
- 44% of junk mail is tossed unopened!
- Only 22% of junk mail is recycled
- The average US household receives 848 pieces of junk mail a year!
- Junk mail destroys 150 million trees per year—the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months!
What I Do to Decrease Junk Mail
- Catalog Choice sends opt-out requests to catalog and other merchants on your behalf
- OptOutPrescreen.Com Service by the major credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion, Experian, and Innovus) to be removed from lists used to send credit and insurance offers
- National Do Not Mail List from DirectMail.com, a national direct mailing company
- National Yellow Pages Consumer Choice & Opt-Out Site will stop delivery of phone books (yellow and white pages) for your area
- Sign up for electronic billing from services you use
- Contact businesses directly. I call and/or email businesses that send us junk mail to be removed from their mailing list. Unfortunately, a lot of times they have purchased a mailing list from places like DirectMail.com, so it won’t remove you from the master list, but it should prevent you from getting mail from this individual business again. Here’s the saved email message I use:
Subject: Removal from Mailing List
Hello,
We recently received an unsolicited mailing from you. We are a zero waste household and are working to eliminate unnecessary paper waste. Would you please remove us from your mailing list:
Name on mailing
Address on mailing
Thank you
Privacy Policy Link on the UnTuckIt Website
OptOut Web Address from Lumens Catalog
OptOut Web Address from Smith and Noble Catalog
Services for a Fee
- Paper Karma a smartphone app that allows you to submit photos to remove yourself from mailing lists for a subscription fee of $1.99 a month
- DMA Choice charges $2 fee for a 10 year period of opting out of junk mail lists.
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[Trī-māz-ing]
Cindy wants you to be Trimazing—three times better than amazing! After improving her health and fitness through plant-based nutrition, losing 60 pounds and becoming an adult-onset athlete, she retired from her 20-year firefighting career to help people just like you. She works with people and organizations so they can reach their health and wellness goals.
Cindy Thompson is a national board-certified Health and Wellness Coach, Lifestyle Medicine Coach, Master Vegan Lifestyle Coach and Educator, Fitness Nutrition Specialist, Behavior Change Specialist, and Fit2Thrive Firefighter Peer Fitness Trainer. She is a Food for Life Instructor with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Rouxbe Plant-Based Professional, and Harvard Medical School Culinary Coach, teaching people how to prepare delicious, satisfying, and health-promoting meals.
She provides health and lifestyle coaching at Trimazing! Health & Lifestyle Coaching. Cindy can be reached at info@trimazing.com.
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