It’s likely that most people have heard of the Do Not Call Registry, but ForestEthics is looking to spread the word about a new registry. The Do Not Mail Registry will not only eliminate annoying unwanted junk mail, but also curb the junk mail industry’s massive contributions to global warming and the destruction of endangered forests.
Some facts from www.donotmail.org:
- It takes more than 100 million trees to produce the total volume of junk mail that arrives in American mailboxes each year.
- The manufacture of junk mail releases more greenhouse gas emissions per year than the emissions released by 9,372,000 million average passenger cars.
- It would take the equivalent of over 500,000 garbage truck loads to dump all junk mail into landfills and incinerators each year.
- The Canadian Boreal is being logged at a rate of 2 acres a minute, 24 hours a day to produce junk mail and other paper products.
- Junk mail in the United States accounts for one-third of all the mail delivered in the world. Even though 44% of that mail goes to the landfill unopened, we still spend 8 months of our lives dealing with it all.
Yikes! I am an avid recycler of all the junk mail that reaches this house, but even so, to know how much the creation and mailing of junk is affecting our environment to a vast majority of people that don’t want it and often don’t even read it is appalling!
As of now there are 62026 signatures on ForestEthic’s petition to create a national Do Not Mail Registry. Are you on the list?
