Did you know that “Every year, 85,000,000,000 catalogs, credit card offers, and other ads are sent to households. It requires literally 100 million trees’ worth of paper, and much of it is unwanted and discarded.”? …that’s according to The Green life.
I’m guilty – I’m one of those households. I still get some of those junk mail, cluttering my kitchen table and counter. My shredder works overtime and the paper recycling bin gets full weekly. I call to stop the junk but after a year or two, they start creeping back. I like to read some of them, I admit, but after about two months of gawking at things that I would never buy, I pick up the phone and tell them to stop sending them.
Well, this time, I decided to take action before I have to call another ’800′ number.
So this week, I signed the Stop the Junk Campaign. I also signed up with CatalogChoice.Org for FREE to stop junk mail.
I started with Yellow Book (who reads phone books anymore?) and Land’s End catalog and took this screenshot just to show you these numbers.
Just by stopping these two junk mail, I saved one full grown tree! And look at how many pounds of CO2 and solid waste and how many gallons of water I saved!
So imagine what the numbers would be like once I stop all my junk mail?
Seeing the numbers on screen this way, made me feel so guilty about the junk I’ve received all these years! But, now that I will be stopping them, I feel relieved. It’s never too late. You should stop all your junk mail that you don’t need. Today!
And sign the Stop the Junk Campaign. And while you are at it, call your local Pennysavers and stop them too. I called my local Pennysavers office last year and it made a huge difference how fast my recycling bin filled up.
The benefit of not wasting natural resources and reducing clutter in my home are great reasons to stop the junk from reaching my home. But the added benefit is also preventing my temptation to buy things on an impulse, creating more clutter. I did, however, subscribe to newsletters from companies that I buy from online. I also subscribe to some catalogues on free apps like Cataloguespree.
So try online catalogues for your absolutely favorite companies. It will definitely save waste and money!
For general de-cluttering info, I found these great resources on de-cluttering your life and wanted to share the links with you.
5 Ways to simplify your virtual life – a great post on how to simplify your ‘digital’ life!
De-Cluttering The Green Way/ – a comprehensive round up of green ways to de-clutter by various green mom bloggers.
I also wanted to share this old but thought provoking video “The Story of Stuff” by Annie Leonard to remind ourselves again where our ‘stuff’ comes from and why we don’t need them.
We have one more week left of the De-Clutter 2012 Challenge. I hope you are making great progress. I have some fun and informative posts for you next week and some great prizes too. So continue to de-clutter and come back and leave comments to enter to win.
[First CC photo via Flickr]
