Eco Action #1

I get too much junk mail! It’s a waste of time to handle it – and a buzz kill for anyone wanting to save the environment. Those lime green sandals don’t look so cute printed on hacked down tree parts.

Some sources site a year of junk mail in America is equivalent to 100 million trees cut down! 51 million metric tons of greenhouse gases. Agh!

What to do? I’m starting with “refusing” my junk mail and sending it back to senders through USPS. To mail it successfully (aka free) you must mark the mail “Refused. Return to sender,” otherwise the post office will not send it back. I also add “REMOVE FROM MAILING LIST” so that they will stop sending their mailers.

Here’s my first batch! Took me less time than writing this blog post. I’ll keep doing this as I get unwanted mail. Next I’ll be contacting catalogue companies that I no longer want, and trying the other ways to reduce junk mail here.

More tips from EPA: https://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/02/put-an-end-to-junk-mail/

(sadly the links to the sources on waste are broken – I’m going to blame that 100% on the Trump administration)

In honor of Earth Day 2017, I’m taking steps each week to reduce my footprint on this earth. Small, baby, easy to digest steps. Thank you Matt Bogdanow for lighting the match.

Credit to: Lauren Wade for infographic above.