The Facts

Did you know...?

Americans receive almost 4 million tons of junk mail every year.

The average American spends 8 full months of his/her life opening junk mail.

The junk mail Americans receive in one day could produce enough energy to heat 250,000 homes.

Americans pay $370 million annually to dispose of junk mail that doesn’t get recycled. That's right, your tax dollars are going towards the disposal of mail you didn't want to begin with.

More than 90 million trees are leveled each year to provide the paper for mostly unwanted mailings.

If merely 100,000 people stopped their junk mail, we could save up to 150,000 trees annually. If 1 million people did this, we could save up to 1.5 million trees.

Out of 5.6 million tons of mailings generated each year, 4.3 million end up being thrown in the trash.

340,000 garbage trucks are needed to haul away all the junk mail that doesn't quite make it to the recycling bin.

Sure, recycling is helpful, but paper can only be recycled 5-7 times before the fibers get too short to bond into new paper.

Instead of recycling, why not try upcycling?

Upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value.


(I know the focus of this blog is junk mail, but I wanted to throw out there the fact that it takes a plastic bag 500 years to decompose. Reusable shopping bags are the way to go, folks.)