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Americans Want Their Independence from Marketers

Americans Want Their Independence from Marketers

Published 06-24-04

Submitted by Center for a New American Dream

Takoma Park, MD - This Sunday marks the first anniversary of the National Do Not Call Registry. Now, Americans are taking aim at their mailboxes. The Center for a New American Dream would like Congress to build upon Do Not Call's momentum and commission a registry to let citizens opt-out out of an equally relentless form of marketing - junk mail.

"At long last, Americans can eat dinner free from the incessant harangue of telemarketers," said New Dream President Betsy Taylor. "We should also be able to open our mailboxes with similar peace-of-mind. Let's face it - how many Americans actually WANT junk mail? Let's set up a companion registry - call it donotjunk.gov - to keep junk mailers from wasting resources and invading our homes."

It would be easy to adapt the rules of the telemarketer registry to apply to junk mail. Like the phone registry, the junk mail list could:

  • be funded by the ad industry and therefore not place a financial burden on taxpayers;
  • not apply to charities and political groups, though they would have to honor citizen requests not to receive further mail; and
  • allow businesses to mail to customers for 18 months after making a sale, though they too would have to honor citizen requests to stop.

Existing Website Makes Reducing Some Junk Mail Easy
Until such time as a national junk mail opt-out registry is established, Americans seeking to unburden their mailboxes can look to the Center for a New American Dream. Each July, the Center calls upon Americans to declare their independence from junk mail. Their website www.newdream.org has handy forms citizens can print, fill out, and send to credit card companies, mailing list sellers, and other marketers. Since removing a name from mailing lists takes ninety days to take effect, Americans who declare "independence" from junk mail in July will sharply reduce the number of unwanted holiday catalogues and mailers they typically receive in the fall.

Getting your name off even a few lists is good for your peace of mind and the environment. We all know how much time junk mail wastes and how much clutter it causes, but the Center for a New American Dream estimates that the typical American household is now barraged with an entire tree's worth of unsolicited postal advertising every year. That is the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months!

Is this onslaught of waste inevitable, like death and taxes? Absolutely not, says Taylor. "It seems like you'd have to move to Mongolia and live in a yurt to escape junk mail. Fortunately, this isn't the case. By having our names removed from a few huge mailing lists, we can save time, money, and perhaps most important, valuable natural resources."

Junk Mail Facts and Figures

BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

  • More than 100 million trees' worth of bulk mail arrives in American mail boxes each year - that's the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months. (Center calculation from Conserveatree and U.S. Forest Service statistics)
  • 5.4 million tons of catalogs and other direct mailings ended up in the U.S. municipal solid waste stream in 2001. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
  • It takes as much energy to manufacture 5.4 million tons of paper as 660,000 SUVs consume in a year - and that doesn't even include the energy needed to print and deliver 5.4 million tons of direct mail! (Center calculation from U.S. Department of Energy and industry statistics)
Even American Roads and Highways are Clogged with Junk Mail
  • Only 32% of all bulk mail was recycled in 2001. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
  • It takes 290,000 garbage trucks to haul all the unrecycled junk mail to landfills and incinerators each year. (Center estimate from EPA and industry statistics)

WASTES TIME AND MONEY
  • Each of the U.S. Postal Service's 293,000 letter carriers delivers an average of 17.8 tons of bulk mail every year. (U.S. Postal Service)
  • Americans throw away 44% of bulk mail unopened, yet still spend 8 months per lifetime opening bulk mail. (Consumer Research Institute)

Looking for Ways to Balance the Budget?
  • Citizens and local governments spend more than $370 million per year to collect and dispose of all the bulk mail that doesn't get recycled. (Center estimate from EPA statistics)
  • Sponsors of California's 'Return to Sender' bill estimate that California's state and local governments spend $500,000 each year just to collect and dispose of AOL disks. (California State Assembly)

DIRECT MARKETING INCREDIBLY POPULAR WITH INDUSTRY, BUT NOT WITH CITIZENS
The Digital Age Was Supposed to be Paperless, Right?
  • U.S. companies sent 35 billion pieces of direct postal mail in 1980.
  • U.S. companies sent 64 billion pieces of direct postal mail in 1990.
  • U.S. companies sent 90 billion pieces of direct postal mail in 2000. (U.S. Postal Service)

Escape Routes from Invasive Marketing Popular with Citizens
  • Ninety-one percent of all U.S. adults have heard of the National Do Not Call Registry. More than half of all adults report that they signed up and now receive far fewer telemarketing calls or none at all. (February 2002 Harris Poll)
  • 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 Center for a New American Dream)

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The Center for a New American Dream helps Americans consume responsibly to protect the environment, enhance quality of life, and promote social justice. We work with individuals, institutions, communities, and businesses to conserve natural resources, counter the commercialization of our culture and promote positive changes in the way goods are produced and consumed. www.newdream.org

For more information, or to complain about receiving unsolicited press releases, please contact: Sarah Roberts - 301-891-3683

Center for a New American Dream

Center for a New American Dream

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