Green Tip of the Week: Put an End to Junk Mail

The following tip comes courtesy the Go Green Galloway Task Force for Sustainability.

If you are like the rest of us, you receive mountains of mail each day, most of which is unsolicited.

The average person gets only 1.5 personal letters each week, compared to 10.8 pieces of junk mail and 44% of that junk mail is thrown in the trash, unopened and unread (not recycled).  

Consider the impact on the environment: 100 million trees are destroyed each year to produce junk mail and 28 billion gallons of water are used to produce the paper that the junk mail is printed on.

You can stop this unsolicited mail with a little time and effort.  The easiest way is to pay for a service:  www.41pounds.org and www.greendimes.com (Green Dimes also offers a free service) will both do the legwork for you. Also, www.stopjunk.com offers a kit developed by the Consumer Research Institute that will provide the tools that you need.

Or you can do it yourself by following these steps:

To end credit card solicitations:   call 1-888-5OPT-OUT or visit www.optoutprescreen.  Ask the companies that you have cards with not to sell or trade your name.

To end general junk mail:  Call the Direct Marketing Association at 212-768-7277 or visit www.dmaconsumers.org.

To stop unwanted catalogs:  Call your catalog companies to request either being removed from their list or to specify only a couple catalogs a year.   Catalog Choice is a free site that allows you to opt out.

Charitable donation requests:  Call to request that they only send one donation request a year.

When filling out contest forms, warranty cards, subscriptions, memberships, etc.:  Add the phrase “please do not rent, sell, or trade my name or address” next to your other information.

For more information, call the Galloway Township Department of Community Education at 652-3700 ext. 209 or email bfiedler@gallowaytwp-nj.gov