alternate brain

The production of junk mail is without a doubt one of the most annoying contributors to the climate crisis, because it is completely wasteful, and because it is, well, junk.

At my house we receive around 20 pieces of junk mail a week, which probably isn’t bad compared to some locations. It may be worse in the U.S. When I lived there, we would get upwards of 50 pieces of junkmail every week — usually in the form of credit card or home equity applications.

Multiply those numbers for a single household by millions, and you get some idea of the volume of this stuff, most of which ends up in a trash can or hopefully a recycle bin. That is a lot of paper, which means a lot of trees, water, and energy were used to produce it. Add to that the amount of energy used to ultimately get it to your mailbox, and suddenly there is a significant carbon footprint.

Junk mail is certainly one reason (one of many) that we in North America are such prolific producers of greenhouse gases. How much junk mail do you think the average fisherman in Bangladesh receives each week?

So how do we stop it? There are a number of services out there you can sign up for that claim they will reduce the amount of junk mail you receive, but unfortunately most of them are limited to the U.S.

Unfortunately, there are surprisingly few options in Canada at this point:

Fee based opt-out service: For $36 CDN per year, Green Dimes will significantly reduce the amount of junk mail you receive, including selectively allowing certain mail (like catalogues that you may still want) to arrive. They will also plant a tree monthly in an area of the world that really needs it (for example, Haiti, which has a severe deforestation problem).

Free opt-out service: The Canadian Marketing Association offers a free Do Not Contact service to enable consumers to keep their names off CMA membership mailing lists. The service also includes a Do Not Call and Do Not Fax service.

Other approaches: If there are individual companies that you deal with on a regular basis that are sending you junk mail, contact them directly through their website or on the phone. Let them know that as a customer you are not happy with this waste, and if they can’t be more environmentally responsible, you will take your business elsewhere.

The Clean Calgary Association points out that if you are an Air Miles member, it could be the source of a lot of junk mail. You can opt out of this at the Air Miles Privacy page. The CCA also recommends putting a ‘No Junk Mail’ sign on the inside of of your mail box.

This person near Toronto has tried a number of different techniques, all free, with mixed results. Some of his ideas (such as sending junk mail back to the sender, or putting it back into the mail) don’t really help the issue, since it still costs energy to ship the junk mail to where ever it ends up going when he re-sends it.