De-junk your mailbox: It’s Part and “Parcel” of greener living!

There’s nothing that quite compares to the excitement and joy of receiving a physical piece of mail. In our increasingly technologically-based world, a physical piece of mail addressed just to us can often be a delightful, welcome addition to our day. However, receiving hordes of mass-distributed, unsolicited “junk” mail is an unwelcome and downright wasteful byproduct of today’s pernicious capitalist economy.

According to The Story of Stuff Project’s “The Story of Junk Mail,” the average American receives 40 pounds of catalogs and other unwanted junk mail every year. Over 40% of this unwanted mail goes directly to landfills without even being opened. In addition to cluttering up our homes and mailboxes, this quantity of junk mail also has a substantial environmental impact.

Every year, over 100 million trees are cut down to produce the paper used in junk mail. The process of making and distributing all that mail releases as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 9 million cars. Furthermore, the process of producing and recycling all this junk mail consumes a staggering 28 billion gallons of water, annually一and that’s just in the US.

On average, a US household receives 848 pieces of junk mail every year. The vast majority of junk mail distributed in the US comes from Direct Mail Advertising (DMA) from restaurants, car dealerships, political parties, and credit card companies. Ultimately, this unsolicited and often undesired mail stream consumes valuable resources in the form of trees and water, fills up landfills, and contributes to climate change through its links to deforestation and fossil fuel consumption. 

If you’re looking to get a handle on your junk mail situation, there are several steps your can take to fight back against unsolicited junk mail as outlined in a HuffPost article on Stopping Junk Mail for Good:

1. Stop junk mail at it’s source by enrolling in the DMA’s screening program known as DMAchoice. For $2, this program allows you to opt out of a variety of junk mail solicitations based on your personal preferences in ten year intervals.

This week, I signed up for said service, providing my name, mailing address, and email address. I entered my credit card information to pay the $2 processing fee, and was then able to choose to receive or opt out of mail offers from catalogs, magazines, and other mail offers. This included subscription offers, newsletters, periodicals, other promotional mailings, donation requests, retail promotions, cable and phone offers, bank offers, and generic mail addressed to”current resident.” For those of us who want nothing to do with any sort of promotional mail, there’s even an easy one-click option to remove your name and address from all unsolicited promotional mail, which is the option I chose.

As the site explains, it can take anywhere from 30-90 days for your updated preferences to go into effect, and you can always update and change your preferences/information (including your address) as needed.

2. The DMAchoice website also has a link to a free resource you can use to opt out of pre-screened credit offers. This resource, OptOutPrescreen.com, is offered by the major credit bureaus and allows you to opt out of receiving unsolicited offers of credit or insurance policies for five years or permanently, with the option to opt back in at any time. The process entails providing your name and address and also asks for your social security number and birthday, although the latter two pieces of personal information are not required. You can also call toll-free 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688) to access this service.

3. In addition to DMAchoice and OptOutPrescreen, ceasing some junk mail may require contacting organizations directly via phone. This specifically applies to any company or organization that you’ve donated to or purchased from in the past, in which case the DMAchoice resource will not effectively remove you from their mailing list.

When I arrived home to my permanent address after two years of traveling around the country, the stack of junk mail that had accumulated on my desk was truly staggering. The main perpetrators included, ironically enough, organizations like The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, and the Environmental Defense Fund as well as my alma mater and numerous airlines offering me company-specific credit card deals. I set aside a few hours and subsequently called every organization, contacting their customer service department and requesting that I (my name and mailing address) be removed from their mailing list. Several months later, my junk mail stacks have significantly dwindled. I was able to find most customer service phone numbers with a quick internet search, but you can also find contact information on each company’s respective page via DMAchoice.

4. You can also utilize Catalogchoice.org, a free alternative to DMAchoice that allows you to unsubscribe from catalogs one at a time. So far, Catalog Choice has saved over 500,000 mature trees, 1.1 billion pounds of greenhouse gas, 400 million pounds of solid waste, and 3.7 billion gallons of water by enabling folks to opt out of receiving junk mail. (These savings estimates were calculated using the Environmental Paper Network’s calculator tool, which is a neat resource that is definitely worth checking out!)

5. You can also utilize additional tools to aid you in the process of unsubscribing, like the PaperKarma app which allows you to take a photo of the unwanted mailing with your smartphone and then attempts to do all the unsubscribing work for you. Oh, technology…

6. It is also worth briefly mentioning that opting in to paperless billing and correspondence for things like banking, credit card statements, and insurance policy documents can also help save a lot of resources.


Ultimately, getting your junk mail under control does take some front loading in putting in the initial time and effort to opt out of these wasteful correspondences. However, doing so will save significant quantities of trees and water, reduce the amount of materials being sent to landfills, and decrease the consumption of fossil fuels and subsequent output of greenhouse gas emissions which the junk mail industry currently contributes to. It will also help to de-clutter your life and make your mail receiving experiences more noteworthy, cherished, and sustainable.

Do you have experience tackling the pervasive junk mail complex? Are there other tips/tricks/strategies you can share? Let us know in the comments section below, and as always, I wish you the best of luck on your continued journey toward greener living.

~Sam

Sustainable Travel Tips: How to Explore Our World without Destroying It

For all those avid Greener Living readers out there, I do apologize for my prolonged absence. As some of you may know, I was on a bit of a whirlwind adventure and inadvertently got preoccupied with my solo travels, which I followed up by taking a new job and moving to Maine.

While I admittedly allowed my life to hinder my commitment to this blog, I continued my commitment to sustainable living and finding ways to reduce waste in my daily life throughout the course of my travels. Thus, we arrive at this week’s blog topic: sustainable travel!

I would first like to acknowledge the privilege inherent in my ability to take three months off and travel to Puerto Rico, Iceland, Scotland, and Ireland. I happened to be at a point in my life where I had the time, the money, and the desire to do so. That being said, these tips can be applied to all types of travel and even aspects of your non-traveling daily life.

First, let’s address the glaringly obvious: air travel is bad for the environment. Aircraft engines emit heat, noise, particulates, and gases which contribute to global pollution and climate change. I knew this to be true before setting off for my travels, and, simply put, the best way to reduce air travel emissions is to fly less frequently. However, if you are going to be traveling by plane, consider incorporating these tips for reducing or offsetting the environmental impact of your flight:

1. Pack light: the more a plane weighs, the more carbon emissions it produces. Packing light will also likely save you money by avoiding checked and overweight baggage fees—an added incentive!

2. Pack snacks from home in reusable tupperware or snack bags to avoid the waste generated from heavily packaged airplane/airport food and snacks (this tip will also save you money! Just be sure to comply with TSA guidelines as outlined by Trip Savvy’s TSA Rules for Traveling with Food)

3. Similarly, bring a reusable water bottle and refill it as you go to avoid purchasing bottled water.

4. Purchase carbon offsets: These offsets are basically a form of trade in which you fund projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions based on a calculation of how much carbon your mode of travel consumed. You can learn more about how carbon offsets work by checking out this website. These offsets can be calculated and purchased directly through many airlines or through organizations like Cool Effect.

My island hopping itinerary of mismatched one-way flights accounted for a staggering 28.5 total hours in the air. Using Cool Effect’s calculator tool, I learned that this emitted a hefty 2.65 tons of Carbon. I subsequently donated a surprisingly reasonable $22.42 to carbon-reducing projects around the world. The process was simple, quick, and transparent in that it provided me the opportunity for follow up information on the impact of my contribution and how it is being used. 

5. Choose to travel with more eco-friendly airlines and do your research to determine which airlines are able to best meet your desired criteria for an eco-conscious business model and flying experience.

If you’re able to cut out flights altogether and take an alternative form of transport from point A to point B, doing so can cut carbon emissions significantly.

Along these same lines, once you arrive at your destination (via plane, train, bus, or automobile) take advantage of public transportation, which is better for the environment than private transport. According to the Federal Transit Administration, heavy rail transit such as subways and metros produce on average 76% lower greenhouse gas emissions per passenger mile than an average single-occupancy vehicle, light rail systems produce 62% less, and bus transit produces 33% less. These modes of transportation also tend to be less expensive than say renting or hiring private transport options.

In addition to flying less frequently, offsetting your carbon emissions from travel, and utilizing public transit systems, you can also practice greener tourism by packing some sustainability essentials as highlighted in previous blog posts. These essentials include reusable tupperware (to pack up leftovers or store other food in), a reusable to-go cup (for all those cute cafes you’ll go to), handkerchiefs, a spork, a reusable straw, a reusable water bottle, and a reusable shopping bag. These items pack easily and are relatively light weight. In the course of my travels, I was able to take care of my runny nose, stay hydrated, shop for food, and store leftovers and pre-packed picnics for myself all without generating any waste.

While traveling abroad or domestically, you can also consciously seek eco-friendly or eco-conscious accommodations: Green travel blogger, Charlie on Travel, has a great post on finding green accommodations while traveling, offering key tips on what to look for and what to avoid. Generally speaking, as Charlie affirms, smaller or locally run accommodations will have a lower impact than big hotels or resorts. You can also utilize the good ol’ world wide web to research sustainable accommodations with a multitude of resources such as the search platform Ecobnb, which enables users to search for a variety of “ecosustainability” criteria such as electric car charging access, bicycle rental services, and 100% renewable energy.



One final tip/trick for staying green and reducing waste / environmental impact while traveling is to make conscious choices about the food you are eating. Consuming a vegetarian, organic, and local diet whenever possible whilst out and about and/or abroad can help reduce the high impact of animal-based, global food systems. (For more on that, check out my previous blog post on the benefits of a plant-based diet).


In the interest of full transparency, did I eat haggis in Scotland, meaty Full Irish breakfasts in Ireland, and the famous street hot dogs of Iceland while traveling? I did. But I also made an effort to eat primarily vegetarian when I wasn’t occasionally indulging in non-vegetarian local delicacies.

Traveling, whether for work or leisure, can be an eye-opening, productive, and rewarding experience. However, if we aren’t deliberate in our commitment toward greener living, it can also prove to be an inherently wasteful and environmentally destructive practice. Making conscious decisions and taking the time to plan ahead can make all the difference. By utilizing alternative modes of travel to airfare or purchasing carbon offsets when we do fly, packing intentionally with sustainability in mind, taking advantage of public transit, seeking eco-conscious accommodations, and eating local/vegetarian meals during the course of our travels, we can continue to explore our world without destroying it.

So, the next time you pack your bags and head out on that plane, train, bus, bike, or automobile, I hope you’ll take the time to plan ahead and commit to an eco-conscious experience using the tips and tricks learned here. As always, I welcome any thoughts or questions in the comments section below, and I hope you’ll eagerly rejoin me on our shared journey toward greener living.

~Sam