To make 100 billion pieces of junk mail, 100 million trees need to be chopped down. That would be the same as deforesting all of Rocky Mountain National Park 3 times a year. Some of those trees are grown sustainably and some of that paper is recycled, but many of those trees come from wild forests in Canada and Indonesia.
If you held onto all of the junk mail you received in a year, it would weigh a total of 41 pounds at the end of the year. The average American receives approximately 18 pieces of junk mail for every piece of ‘regular’ mail. About 42% of junk mail ends up going to landfills, never even opened.
Junk mail also has a huge impact on the world’s climate. The production of junk mail has the same carbon footprint as 9 million vehicles, and the energy used to produce all of this junk mail could heat 250,000 homes for one day.
It may not seem like much, but the junk mail you get delivered every day has a pretty big impact. So what’s the solution to this problem? There are a few things you can do to reduce and eliminate your junk mail.