Cutting Junk Mail Can Reduce Waste Before It Starts

Junk mail may seem like a small annoyance. However, the environmental impact adds up quickly.

Direct-mail advertising creates billions of pounds of waste every year. It also requires trees, water, electricity and fuel before the material ever reaches a mailbox. Then, cities must collect, process and dispose of much of that unwanted paper.

That is why communities across the United States began looking at a simpler solution: stop unwanted mail before it becomes waste.

Catalog Choice Targets Waste at the Source

Catalog Choice emerged as one of the organizations helping consumers control unsolicited mail.

The nonprofit created a mail preference service that allowed residents to decide which catalogs, advertisements and other mailings they wanted to receive. More importantly, consumers could opt out of material they did not want.

As interest grew, cities and counties began partnering with Catalog Choice.

Communities including San Jose, Boulder County, Cambridge, Brookline, King County and Santa Fe joined the effort. Other programs also launched in places such as Chicago, Seattle, Berkeley and Tompkins County, New York.

The approach supported a basic zero-waste principle: preventing waste usually works better than managing it after it has already been created.

Less Mail Means Fewer Resources

Reducing unwanted mail can deliver several environmental benefits.

First, companies use less paper. Therefore, fewer trees and other resources are needed to produce advertising materials.

In addition, paper manufacturing requires significant amounts of water and energy. Cutting unnecessary mail can reduce those demands as well.

Finally, less material reaches municipal waste and recycling systems. That can lower transportation, sorting and disposal costs for local governments.

According to estimates cited when the program launched, direct-mail advertising generated roughly 10 billion pounds of solid waste annually. Municipalities were also spending substantial amounts collecting and disposing of those materials.

Giving Consumers More Control

The Catalog Choice system gave participating communities customized online tools. Residents could identify unwanted mailings and request that companies stop sending them.

Meanwhile, municipalities could track participation, estimated waste diversion and potential environmental benefits.

That created advantages for both sides.

Consumers received less unwanted paper. Cities reduced waste. At the same time, marketers had an opportunity to stop spending money sending advertisements to people who were unlikely to respond.

Zero Waste Starts With Prevention

Recycling remains important. However, avoiding unnecessary waste in the first place can deliver an even larger benefit.

Every catalog or advertisement that never gets printed also avoids the energy, transportation, packaging and disposal associated with that piece of mail.

That is the larger lesson behind programs designed to reduce junk mail.

Sustainability does not always require complicated technology or massive infrastructure projects. Sometimes, it starts by removing something people never wanted in the first place.

Reducing unwanted mail gives households more control while helping communities cut waste, conserve resources and lower costs.

And when millions of mailboxes participate, a small individual action can become a meaningful environmental movement.

Sources

Catalog Choice — Stop Unwanted Junk Mail
https://www.catalogchoice.org/about
Catalog Choice remains a nonprofit service that helps consumers cancel unwanted catalogs and other paper mail.
U.S. EPA — Facts and Figures About Materials, Waste and Recycling
https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling
EPA reports that paper and paperboard accounted for 23.1% of U.S. municipal solid waste generation in its latest national dataset.
Federal Trade Commission — How to Stop Junk Mail
https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-stop-junk-mail
The FTC provides current guidance for reducing unsolicited catalogs, marketing mail, and prescreened credit and insurance offers.