MSN Money -- Your 41 pounds of junk mail
You can put your mailbox on a diet -- by reducing the unwanted solicitations and catalogs that weigh it down. Here's how to lighten your load and be kinder to the planet.,
August 13th, 2009
The average household sifts through 41 pounds of junk mail annually, sending most to the circular file, says Sander DeVries, a co-founder of 41 Pounds, a Michigan nonprofit trying to reduce the environmental impact of junk mail."I only read about 5 to 10% of the junk mail we get," says Nancy Mann Jackson, 34, of Florence, Ala. "Most of it is trash."
The vast majority of junk mail does indeed wind up in the trash (35% of it is never even delivered), yet it is among the most effective marketing tools. That's largely because -- though the array of catalogs, circulars, leaflets and offers in your mailbox may leave you scratching your head -- somewhere, somehow, your own actions are probably responsible for the junk mail that comes to your door.
Yet few of us know how or why we get the particular junk mail that we do or that there are easy ways to greatly limit how much we receive.