Do Not Mail : The Facts about Junk Mail

The Facts about Junk Mail

American mailboxes are inundated with junk mail. More than 100,000,000,000 pieces of junk mail are delivered each year—that’s more than 800 pieces per household. In fact, 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.

But junk mail does more than invade our homes and waste our time; it also destroys our environment.

Junk mail contributes to climate change — read our report, Climate Change Enclosed.

• It takes more than 100 million trees to produce the total volume of junk mail that arrives in American mailboxes each year—that's the equivalent of clearcutting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every 4 months.¹⁰

• The manufacture of junk mail releases more greenhouse gas emissions per year than the emissions released by 9,372,000 million average passenger cars.¹¹ Check out the side bar to find out more facts about the Junk Mail Effect, or read our full report.
  

• The Canadian Boreal forms part of the greater Boreal Forest, which stores more carbon than any other terrestrial ecosystem on earth.¹² Despite this natural ability to protect us from the effects of global warming, the Canadian Boreal is being logged at a rate of 2 acres a minute, 24 hours a day¹³ to produce junk mail and other paper products.

• Deforestation of Indonesia’s tropical forests is responsible for 8% of global carbon emissions.¹⁴ This destruction is largely driven by demand for pulp and paper for end uses like junk mail. Logging contributes to Indonesia’s status as the world’s third largest emitter of CO2 into the Earth’s atmosphere, despite its relatively small size.¹⁵

• Both Canada’s Boreal and Indonesia’s tropical forests are home to indigenous communities who depend on the land for hunting, fishing, economic development and cultural activities.

• The Boreal provides critical habitat to caribou and half of North America’s songbird species.¹⁶ Indonesia is home to 12% of Earth’s mammal species, and 17% of all bird species.¹⁷ Many of these, including endangered orangutans and tigers, rely on Indonesia’s rapidly disappearing tropical rainforests for their survival.

Do Not Mail : The Facts about Junk Mail (click on link to read more!)

-hmg