How to stop the junk mail, now!

More than 100 million trees are destroyed each year to make 'junk' mail. 44% of that mail doesn't even get opened.

Only 20 per cent of the eight billion catalogues delivered each year are ever read. Tim Langdon from Eco Voice explains junk mail creates a lot of unnecessary waste, and not just on your kitchen counter.

'When you consider the amount of trees used to produce the paper and the water used, the fuel and energy required for the production and distribution, the chemicals that are used in the printing process, the CO2 that's released into the atmosphere and the amount of paper rubbish that ends up in landfill, it's an incredible waste if those catalogues aren't being read,' he said.

Junk mail makes up an astonishing six per cent of Australia's total paper usage, amounting to 240,000 tonnes of paper annually. The water needed to produce a year's worth of catalogues could fill 8,640 Olympic-sized swimming pools."

Reducing 1 tonne of junk mail saves 17 trees, 2.3 cubic metres of landfill, 31,400 litres of water, 4,200 kilowatt hours of energy, 1,600 litres of oil and avoids 26 kilograms of air pollutants. *

Here are some simple tips to make sure you are doing everything possible to SAY NO TO JUNK MAIL!

Thanks to cleanup.org for this info.

• • Place a No Advertising Material sticker on your letter box. The stickers are available free of charge from the Distribution Standards Board. Call 1800 676 136 for more information.
  • Report irresponsible distribution of junk mail. Report any junk mail which is littered, delivered in duplicate or delivered to a letterbox with a No Advertising Material sticker on it. Report offenders to the Distribution Standards Board on 1800 676 136.
For more information about the board visit: http://catalogue.asn.au/dsb/
  • Register your details on the Consumer Do Not Contact Opt Out Service . Including yourself on this list will ensure that you are not contacted by 500 members of the Australian Direct Marketing Association. These members include banks, insurance companies, publishers, catalogue and mail order companies and charities who contact consumers via: mail, telephone, direct response television, the internet and mobile phones.
  • Make a digital choice. Register with online catalogue portals such as Catalogue Central or Lasoo Online Catalogues to receive only the advertising material you want. Alternatively you can visit retailers own websites to receive store and brand catalogues online.

Easy right? Have any extra tips you'd like to share? Comment below!

*Facts taken from Ashfield council website.