What can you do?

How much of a difference could you make if you were to stop the volume of physical junk mail getting to your mailbox?

I pull out more junk mail than mail that was actually addressed to the house. Each time this was happening, certain thoughts were continuously entering my head. There are times when its just really annoying receiving them and other times when you think “Why send it to me?” or even “That’s got to bad for the environment!”

The more I learnt about junk mail and its effects on everything, the more uncomfortable I felt. There I was, one in probably around 13,000,000 Australians who would be receiving junk mail today – without even asking for it. By not doing anything about it, they were contributing towards a host of negative consequences on our environment.

Some surprising facts about junk mail

  • Junk mail accounts for about 8.2 billion pieces of unaddressed pieces of printed advertising material each year.
  • That’s 240,000 tonnes of waste each year.
  • Which happens to be less than one quarter the number of trees that need to be planted in order to offset against the same weight in carbon emissions.
  • The wastage created by junk mail, has roughly the equivalent impact on the environment as does clear-felling one million trees each year.

In weight terms, this is the same amount as 60,000 homes would produce in carbon emissions each year.

By taking the following steps to reduce the junk mail that ends up in your letterbox you are helping to minimise water and paper resource waste:

  • Place a No Advertising Material sticker on your letter box. The stickers are available free of charge from the Distribution Standards Board. Call 1800 676 136 for more information.
  • Report irresponsible distribution of junk mail. Report any junk mail which is littered, delivered in duplicate or delivered to a letterbox with a No Advertising Material sticker on it. Report offenders to the Distribution Standards Board on 1800 676 136.
    For more information about the board visit: www.catalogue.asn.au/distribution
  • Register your details on the Consumer Do Not Contact Opt Out Service. Including yourself on this list will ensure that you are not contacted by 500 members of the Australian Direct Marketing Association. These members include banks, insurance companies, publishers, catalogue and mail order companies and charities who contact consumers via: mail, telephone, direct response television, the internet and mobile phones.
  • Make a digital choice. Register with online catalogue portals such as Junk Mail Australia, Lasoo and Catalogue Central to receive only the advertising material you want. Alternatively you can visit retailers own websites to receive store and brand catalogues online.

Register at http://www.greencents.com.au