July, 2009 No-Brainer: Cancel Your Junk Mail

Let's be honest. Junk mail is the devil.

Very few people actually read their junk mail. Here are some facts:

• One study says Americans throw away 44% of bulk mail unopened, yet still spend 8 months per lifetime opening bulk mail. (Consumer Research Institute) 1
• Fifty-five percent of Americans “dislike” and 26% “despise” getting internet disks in the mail, while 1.9% “really appreciate” them. (June 2002 Opinion Research Corporation International Poll commissioned by New American Dream) 1

And yet:

• Junk mail accounts for more than 1% of the total oil used by cars in the United States.
  
• $320 million of local taxes are used to dispose of unsolicited mail each year ²
• The production and disposal of direct mail consumes more energy than 3 million cars. (New American Dream calculation from U.S. Department of Energy and the Paper Task Force statistics) ³

I will give you step-by-step instructions for how to Cancel Your Junk Mail, and I will pay you $5 to do it.

Do It.

This month's challenge is sponsored by the Austin Chocolate Festival.

Send this link to all your friends. When you do the No-Brainer, let us know how many friends you sent it to, and we'll start giving out free Oil is Dumb t-shirts to the people who sent it to the most friends.

Enjoy getting less mail in your mailbox!

- Chuck