Junk Mail Revolution!

"The average adult receives 41 lbs. of junk mail a year."

"More than 4 million tons (62 billion pieces) of junk mail are produced yearly."

"Only 20% of businesses running mail campaigns track metrics to gauge the performance of their mailers."

"Cities estimate they spend $1 billion per year to dispose of direct mail."

Every week I am stunned at the sheer volume of junk mail I receive in my tiny apartment mailbox. I am one person. There are two mailbox grids in our one complex.

Every week I see this trash can stuffed with perfectly unused junk mail. I see people open their mail boxes and go straight for the trash without a glance. This is one trash, in one apartment complex, in one city, in one state.

I am horrified by just my complex, but then I have to multiply my awareness by an unimaginable number to understand the reality. This is not just a flyer, this is a PACKET of USELESS information from stores I have never stepped foot in, and don't plan to. Multiply that packet by millions per week and you have a problem.

To top it all off, if I do find 'worthy coupons', I set them aside, they sit there, they expire, and then they go to the same recycling bin as the rest. I don't really need these coupons in the end. I can further this by mentioning Safeway. They allow online coupon-clicking. Fry's might too. It just applies the deals to your card. A LOT EASIER. The problem is that they still send me the mail with the SAME coupons attached in print. Even if you have no computer or internet access, there is always a laptop at the store to be used exclusively for customers in need (which is also nice if you forget to click before you go). In the end it seems that the junk mail just wants to show you pictures and numbers. For me, I just look for good coupons and then go. I look at the prices in the store, not from a flyer. I figure there will be deals on about 50% of the store merchandise at one time, and the deals rotate every so often. So what is the big need for WEEKLY packets of random numbers?

Sure it's nice to recycle, but wouldn't it be even better to simply conserve? This is the age of technology. I think we can do it.

I have been emotionally motivated to stop this mail for a year, and yet somehow it took me this long to finally do a 5-second Google search to find out how. Turns out it is SUPER EASY.

"Researchers at the University of California recently found that four out of five Americans favor a Do-Not-Mail law, similar to the existing Do-Not-Call telemarketing registry."

I can tell you why this hasn't happened yet. It's because people don't have their dinner interrupted by junk mail like they do with telemarketers. People only react to things hitting them in the face. Junk mail is a silent killer to us, but it is pretty 'hitting in the face' to all the thousands of animals in the forests around the world. Pretty soon we will have nothing to look at but barren wastelands, and then it will hit us in the face. If you look up areas of wildlife or random species on Wikipedia, you will find vulnerable species MUCH more often these days, and it always gives comments about destruction of habitat, or even more criminal acts. This is the same with any wildlife documentary you watch. It has become so apparent that they HAVE to include reality into these things.

Since there is no law yet, we can do it OURSELVES until it is one.

 I see people argue about politicians and government and how they are doing everything wrong. Yes they might be doing all the wrong things, but what are WE doing? What if this wasn't about the government? At the very least I can say that the government is not responsible for ALL the corruption in the world. Society is a TEAM EFFORT. We're all in this together, and if we fail, the blood is on ALL of our hands. Life REQUIRES cooperation. We can simply NOT sweep things under our rug and blame everything on other people. The government does not tell us we have to recycle by law, and yet many of us still try our best to encourage it. People would complain about freedom if they forced us to recycle and removed the option for plastic shopping bags at stores. That is the gray area of freedom. If people want freedom to remain positive, then they have to act like they are running the country because in this free country we really are as one. All of our actions amount to one society, and therefore have a strong force in what changes take place. Organic food is becoming more widely available because many of us started voting with our dollars. If a company loses its customers, it disappears within a few years. If I was running the government, I would be very strict on conservation. I would make regulations requiring everyone to live mimicking nature in many different ways. I would allow almost nothing artificial. Since we are not being ruled by me, we have to take important matters into our own hands. For example, the fate of our planet. The government will not, and more importantly, CAN NOT make that kind of improvement for us. They are too afraid to do anything drastic because they want to please everyone and there is always one half that disagrees on every idea, so nothing drastic happens. Then they wait for something drastic to happen so that they can use it to gain the upper hand in acceptance. I don't want to wait until my planet and life and future is in jeopardy. Junk mail is a HUGE start. It is something most of us can agree on, and if we don't, we don't technically have to fight against it, but it will continue to have consequences no matter what.

There are different types of junk mail. We have the grocery store bundle of junk (sometimes complete with fast food ads), credit card and insurance mailers (which are dangerous and cumbersome because they print your full name and address on the papers so you have to tear them up one-by-one before disposal), and sometimes small business booklets or personally ordered catalogs (there are many that offer online catalogs).

First and foremost, I think it is important to remove the grocery ads. I know which stores I like because I go to them. I don't need to be reminded of what's out there. For me, in Phoenix Arizona, I get two kinds of packets for grocery stores. There is Buyer's Edge, and RedPlum. They are both super easy to remove.

Buyer's Edge: Call this number and simply leave your name and address on the recording prompt.
(602)444-8831.

RedPlum: Even easier. Go to this website and fill out the form and you're done!
https://www.save.com/application/redplum-postal-addremove.html
*You can also visit the website to see their coupons if you have any future cravings for junk mail.

(Buyer'sEdge + RedPlum = 12.4 + 7.6 = 20 lbs of annual junk mail avoided.)

Every 5 people that do this save 100 lbs of wasted materials per year!
*Not to mention all the trees and CO2 emissions involved in the production and process of creation.

If you have different companies and different mailers, then just Google 'how to stop [Blah Blah Deals] mail', and I am sure you will find it as fast as I did.

As for the horribly bombarding credit card and insurance offers, I tried to find a "National Do Not Mail" list from the government, and sadly they have not gotten around to that yet, but I found that they endorse this website, which is in fact the best one because it wipes them all out in one sweep. It's called OptOutPreScreen.com. Pre-Screening is the basis that the companies use to send you the credit cards, and it is useless because when Grace tried to respond to an "ALREADY QUALIFIED!" offer, she was denied and therefore wasted the credit check that they use when you respond (which hurts your credit).

Credit Card/Insurance Offers: Fill out the form and it takes ALL of them away (and their evil identity theft opportunities).
https://www.optoutprescreen.com/opt_form.cgi
*This one requires a social security number to identify you and make the process universal. You can also opt in at any time.

If you want to get rid of only specific companies, there is another website that lets you search companies by name. It is CatalogChoice.org.
https://www.catalogchoice.org/dashboard

The only other thing I have needed to eliminate for myself is the InsideCoup booklet that comes once a month. I liked it for a while because it displays small businesses, but it is getting redundant for me, so I leave that one up to you.

InsideCoup: Fill out the form or call the number. I completed the form and asked to be removed from the mailing list with my name and address in the comment box.
http://www.theinsidecoup.com/contact

Let's remind ourselves why this is important:

"In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 44% of junk mail is discarded without being opened or read, equaling four million tons of waste paper per year, with 32% recovered for recycling. Further, the Ohio Office of Compliance Assistance and Pollution Prevention (OCAPP) estimates that 250,000 homes could be heated for a single day's junk mail."

That implies that the 56% of junk mail which is opened and read is not recycled much either. The marketing supporters always say, "Oh, and we ..HOPE.. that people recycle it." That way they sleep better at night.

"The CO2 emissions from 41 pounds of advertising mail received annually by the average US consumer is about 47.6 kilograms (105 pounds) according to one study. The loss of natural habitat potential from the 41 pounds of advertising mail is estimated to be 36.6 square metres (396 square feet)."

Imagine that, 396 square feet of wildlife habitat per year to give ONE person their dose of useless junk. I don't care if they were offering me a free laptop somewhere in that pile of junk, I would rather have that 396 square feet of habitat.



As I am sure I've hinted at in my previous posts, everything we do here creates a chain effect broader than we might think. Producing junk mail requires every resource we commonly use. Trees, Fuel, Water, etc. This process all contributes to greenhouse gasses as well. You will hear people argue in the business world about how it is so important and effective with sales and that it is tree friendly because they grow tree plantations.

Here's the truth on those ideas:

I am a consumer. I personally have NEVER seen anyone use junk mail, and it does not motivate me personally to spend money either. I am one of many in this modern world who have educated reasons for why they choose certain businesses and products. They either carry the things I want/support, or the product is reliable/trusted. If it is a big purchase like electronics or appliances, I do tons of research before handing over money. We are the beginning of the 'Educated Consumers' generation. And even if I owned a business and direct mail was undeniably awesome in sales, I would still find another way because WE DON'T HAVE A CHOICE anymore. Our planet is DYING. I guarantee you the climatologists and environmental scientists are all shaking in their lab coats right now because they are terrified of what is going on outside. To spend billions of dollars to generate a handful of customers at the expense of our global health DOES NOT make sense to me with this picture. I wouldn't agree even if the planet was completely healthy. That promotes the same kind of thinking as all the evilness we deal with. Such as, "I don't care about the irresponsible acts I am committing because it won't affect my lifetime."

I have also worked long enough to know that companies prize word-of-mouth above all forms of advertising because it is the most powerful. On every infomercial they pride themselves with 'ACTUAL CUSTOMER!' testimonials. Recommendations rule the sales industry. Reputation. That is what makes people buy things in the end. Our 'Educated Consumers' generation is leaning towards those types of things rather than package-label promises. One example of this approach is Yelp.com. It is the best. It is where we all go to review places and shed the truth on businesses, restaurants, landmarks, vacation spots, and anything else we can think of. People are thorough on that website, and I value it highly. Reviews are one of the most powerful tools we have as civilians. Companies will bend over backwards when you speak the truth publicly. Kind of like how the independent news website DrudgeReport.com is turning the government upside-down causing them to admit that they bribe the media and that they are upset at DrudgeReport for exposing REAL truths.

On to the next point.

To tell me that printing 100 billion pieces of junk mail a year just for it to be thrown away, is somehow tree-friendly, is downright insane. Somehow this stuff is so important to be produced that it literally encompasses nearly HALF of all mail distributed in this country. The US Postal Service is NOT a green company. I will tell you that right now because they LOVE junk mail. It is HALF of their JOB. Therefore it is HALF of their INCOME to DELIVER ADS! They are literally promoting direct mail options to businesses as we speak! They are as money-driven as they come. Never trust a business person claiming that they are doing something good or righteous. It is ALL about money. They are not going out there cutting down rainforests in a checkerboard format and replanting the trees they cut down with little happy ribbons tied around the saplings with love. They are OBLITERATING ANY FOREST they can get their greasy hands on, and creating tree plantations in a completely different country, leaving the wreckage of thousands of species there to suffer, and creating a new patch of trees that has NO history and NO established ecosystem. They do this to get around the environmental activist complaints. They do this to 'meet regulations'. Regulations are usually basic, flimsy, and not very reliable. Just look at the food we are eating. Just look at the drugs we are pumping. Do you trust any FDA, USDA, food inspector, or safety inspector? I sincerely hope not. The people cutting down trees and planting sprouts (which take hundreds of years to even grow to the same extent of the massive trees they cut down), are just trying to create a pseudo-source for their statistic, so that they can also cut down anyone trying to raise opposition to what they are doing. It is called manipulation, and people do that a lot with political issues as we all know. I saw one marketing blog writer speak up about the ill-effects of direct mail, and promoted using online advertising, and he was torn to pieces in the comments. These people use false excuses and clever lies to mask the truth of what they are doing.

Plants and Trees turn CO2 into Oxygen.

A single tree can absorb CO2 at a rate of 48 lb. per year.

Trees store Carbon, which makes up roughly half the weight of dry wood. That keeps it from being in places that it shouldn't be overabundant like the atmosphere.

Imagine if we planted trees on top of EVERY building, as a requirement. That would help offset some of the city air pollution, help with natural cooling during summer, make buildings prettier, and help with CO2 emissions. If people like parking under trees to make their cars preserved and cooler, then why not live under trees? We could also have fruit trees in nooks and crannies throughout the city. Even urban gardens, and that would bring all kinds of extra public produce IN the city.

These organisms are the hope for the planet right now. To think of our damage to the air being reversible is amazingly uplifting. The fact that brings me back to Earth though is that the air quality is only one of our problems. Even in the realm of air, there are other pollutants like industrial particular-matter pollution. The other most important thing that is being destroyed is water. We can filter it all we want, but we can't filter it all for the animals. We rely on animals more than some people realize, and water is the foundation of all life. Everything poured out onto the ground leads to the ocean or gets trapped somewhere in-between. This is why trash is also of equal importance because we have been using the ocean as our trash. Big ships go out to sea and drop tons of waste into the ocean to dispose of it. I will reserve these topics for now, but I thought they were relevant to think about in correlation. Most things are connected, so it is hard to only talk about one topic. That's why actions are important, they always always have a chain effect.

We should be living on this planet as if we are thousands of years back through a time machine trying not to ruin anything by stepping on a bug or harming anything that might change the course of the future.

Please don't even get me started on the ridiculously pointless uses of paper in the medical world.