Junk mail is a nuisance, right? Something you take out of the mailbox and put straight into the recycling bin? Nothing more than an irritation? Well, think again. Junk mail is a lethal contributor to climate change and environmental group ForestEthics is trying to do something about it.
ForestEthics’ recent report Junk Mail’s Impact On Climate Change highlights the significance of junk mail’s contribution to climate change. “The tragedy is how insignificant junk mail is - most of us don't want it, and almost none of us would miss it (I don't think we're in any danger of being under-advertised to, for example),” explains Will Craven from ForestEthics. Their report found that more than 100 billion pieces of junk mail are delivered in the United States each year, which comes out to 848 pieces per household. It takes more than a 100 million trees to make junk mail each year and 44% of that junk mail goes into the landfill unopened.
“It's not very well known that deforestation produces more CO2 emissions than all planes, trains, and automobiles combined. If we're going to address it [CO2 emissions], junk mail is an excellent place to start,” explains Craven. Junk mail creates more than 51,548,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases each year, the equivalent of more than 9 million cars, 11 coal fired plants, nearly 85,000 international flights, or the emissions generated by heating nearly 13 million homes for the winter.
“30% of all the mail delivered in the world is US junk mail. We thought that the US was a good place to start,” explains Craven. ForestEthics is running a campaign to set up a Do Not Mail Registry in the USA to give Americans the option to stop receiving junk mail. The registry would operate in a similar manner to the Do Not Call List, which allows individuals to stop unwanted telephone solicitors from calling.
ForestEthics is asking individuals to go DoNotMail.org and sign their petition to create a nation-wide Do Not Mail Registry. They launched their Do Not Mail campaign on March 12 of this year, and the petition at DoNotMail.org now has nearly 68,000 signatures, including those of Leonardo DiCaprio, Adrian Grenier, David Crosby and Daryl Hannah.
Canadians are going to have to wait a little longer for a Do Not Mail campaign of our own. “We support the Red Dot Campaign, which urges citizens to put a red dot sticker on their mailboxes, indicating to the postal service that they do not wish to receive direct mail. To date, the Canadian postal service has agreed to honor these requests,” explains Craven.
Resources
ForestEthics: http://www.forestethics.org/
Do Not Mail Campaign: www.DoNotMail.org
Red Dot Campaign: http://www.reddotcampaign.ca/
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