Reduce your Junk Mail

Junk mail comes to your mailbox whether you want it or not. The average person gets only 1.5 personal letters each week, compared to 10.8 pieces of junk mail. This amounts to 560 pieces of junk mail per year per person. Much of it ends up in the trash, which is a major reason why paper makes up approximately 40% of the solid mass in our landfills. There are things you can do to tame the junk mail monster. A little regularly applied effort can go a long way.

Whenever you order a product, attend a conference, donate money, or fill out a warranty card, your name, address and preferences are compiled by direct mailing companies and sold to various advertisers. To reduce the amount of junk mail you receive, you must actively remove your name from these lists. Junk mail at your business must be dealt with differently than junk mail at home. Click on these outside links courtesy of County of San Mateo RecycleWorks to explain how to slow the flow of junk mail into your home and workplace.

Remove your Name from Unwanted Mailing Lists
Print these postcards on cardstock and address them to catalogues, credit card companies, etc. that you receive junk mail from. Cut out your address from the piece of unwanted mail and tape it over the words "tape your address from junk mail here." Address the postcard, check off the appropriate boxes, and drop it in the mailbox. Template for Post Card  posted in Adobe Acrobat PDF file format.

If you don't have the FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can obtain it from Adobe by clicking on the linked Acrobat icon .

Thank you to the County of San Mateo RecycleWorks for supplying this junk mail recycling information.
Return to top

Recycling Main Page
At Home | Commercial | Hazardous Waste
Recycling Tips | Who is MCDS | Questions
 Public Works Home Page

Rev 12/20/06 - L. Huelga - http://www.monterey.org/recycle/junkmail.html