Stop the Junk Mail!

“Americans spend 8 months of their lives dealing with junk mail.” …. Stat from the World Watch Institute

You must be the change you wish to see in the world…   ~~~Gandhi

Hello all!  There is a lot going on in the world right now and I could focus on any number of things, but today I am thinking about our friends experiencing such crazy and destructive weather.  I have family in some of the hardest hit areas of southeast MO.  It is very sad and stressful there.  They are already experiencing flooding, the Army Corps of Engineers is talking about blowing a hole in a major levee and it’s raining again now.  The above pic was taken a few months ago in that part of the world, a glorious and beautiful but rugged and wild part of the state.  I’m sure it’s now flooded, along with the near-by St. Francois River.  We wish all the folks there and further south some dry days and send some big hugs.  If you are so inclined, perhaps you could also consider sending your own prayers or happy thoughts as well.

I don’t at all want to politicize this blog, but I do want to pass along some basic info on a  small thing that is actually a really big thing.  A lot of you may not know that Blessings Enterprises is a Certified Green Business, accredited though Green America.  It was a major commitment I made when I started this business and each year I renew the accreditation.  We can all make a difference for other people and the planet, even with small actions.  Words and choices matter.

I think that in times of great crisis or environmental disaster, such as we are experiencing now, it’s easy to fall into a defeated mindset and think there isn’t much that one person can do.  I beg to differ…in addition to prayer or the Red Cross, in addition to lending a hand or volunteering with clean up, there are individual things you can do as well.  As odd as it may sound, one of the things you can do is sign up to stop your junk mail. It takes about ten minutes and makes a huge difference for the environment.  Some stats tell us that over a million trees a year are cut down each year in the Brazilian rain forest just to make direct mail catalogs.  You didn’t get to choose to opt in to all the junk mail that comes to your house, but you can choose to opt out!

Here are a few stats from websites I like and I included the links.  You can also go to this link and find several other links as well, from opting out of Val-Pac to other direct mail and marketing sites.  They have a lot of cool info on their site.  What follows is a cut/paste from several other sites, I tried to consolidate them into a usable format.

Hoping this finds all of you warm and safe and dry.  Thanks for what you all do for people and the planet.  Have a great day 🙂

Stop the Junk Mail Monster!

More than 41.5 billion pieces of mail advertisements were produced and distributed in the U.S in 2005, according to the Worldwatch Institute. It took more than 100 million trees to create all this bulk mail – that’s the equivalent of deforesting all of Rocky Mountain National Park every four months. Even though most junk mail can be recycled, 5.8 million tons of catalogs and other direct mailings ended up as trash in landfills or incinerators in 2005. And all this comes at a cost to our climate as well: The production and disposal of junk mail consumes more energy than 3 million cars.

Each of us will spend an average of eight months of our lives dealing with junk mail. It’s time to reclaim our resources, our time and our mailboxes by stopping junk mail early and often by following these ten easy steps: