Junk mail destroys 100 million trees a year-the equivalent of deforesting all of Rocky Mountain National Park every four months. The average American household receives 848 pieces of junk mail per household, equal to 1.5 trees every year-more than 100 million trees for all U.S. landfills annually.Ĥ4 percent of junk mail is thrown away unopened, but only half that much junk mail (22 percent) is recycled. And then there's the ecological impact: Here are some horrifying facts from New York University School of Law about junk mail and sustainability:ĥ.6 million tons of catalogs and other direct mail advertisements end up in U.S. And all those credit card offers could put you at risk of identity theft. And there are actual threats to this mailbox onslaught: Junk mail exposes your private info by sharing your name, address, and purchasing habits with marketers around the country. Not convinced it's a big intrusion? According to, one of the largest non-profit recyclers in the USA, you could spend up to eight months of your life dealing with junk mail. Sorting, reading, and recycling junk mail takes time away from your daily activities, not to mention creating a mess- declutter your life with these tips from the pros.
Junk mail comes at a huge cost to our quality of life.
These companies apparently get enough responses to justify their excessive mailings, but that doesn't mean you have to take it laying down. That avalanche of credit card offers, insurance offers, catalogs, flyers, coupons, phone books, and anything else you didn't specifically ask for, all vying for your attention and bent on the eradication of our forests. Postal Service (USPS) annually, none of them solicited or requested by the recipient, and most of them entirely unwanted. Hundreds of millions of pieces of junk mail (also called "direct," "bulk," or "standard" mail) are sent through the U.S.