Can we talk about how much junk mail is actually trees? I did the math and got sad.

I was cleaning out my mailbox last Saturday and counted 14 flyers and catalogs from just one week. That got me wondering, so I looked up how much paper that really is. Turns out the average American household gets about 800 pieces of junk mail per year, and that uses over 100 million trees annually in the US alone. I found that stat on a conservation group's website, and it kinda hit me hard. I mean, I recycle most of it, but still, that's a lot of trees for stuff I toss in five seconds. Has anyone else ever looked into how much of that paper is actually recyclable or if there's a way to stop it at the source?

2 comments

2 Comments

oscarb7717d ago

Read a report a while back that said something like 40% of that junk mail never even gets opened. All those trees just go straight to the landfill or recycling center. The glossy catalogs are the worst, they use a special coating that makes them harder to recycle than regular paper.

oscarb7718d ago

Recycled about 30 pounds of the stuff last year alone from my house. All those glossy coupon books and credit card offers just end up in the bin anyway.