The old saying that “One person’s junk is another’s treasure” certainly holds true for ad mail. Some of us try to avoid paper mail altogether, directing our consumer spending online and to local businesses. Many others enjoy flipping through sporadic mailings from our favorite companies, and, yes, a whopping 1.9% of Americans even ‘really appreciate’ getting those AOL discs. So, how do we protect the ability to each shop in our preferred manner, while also preserving forests and alleviating pressure on our landfills in the process?
One way is to fill out a few simple forms that stop your name and address from being sold to direct marketers and credit card companies. A second is to urge Congress to commission a DoNotJunk opt-out registry modeled on the popular DoNotCall registry.
Just as importantly, however, a third way pertains to the catalogs you actually want to receive! You can urge these companies to protect Endangered Forests and start printing their catalogs on high-recycled content paper.
New American Dream has joined with Forest Ethics and other groups to call upon five of the country’s biggest catalog companies – all of whom currently use little or no recycled content -- to start greening the 600 million catalogs they pump out each year.
Take action! Send a letter urging companies you patronize to start printing their catalogs on at least 10% recycled content immediately, and to commit to working up to 50% or 60% recycled content over the next five years. Then be sure to tell your friends to do the same.
