This morning, like most days, I went out to my mailbox. Not surprisingly, I found four or five pieces of mail; most of them junk that I would probably not even need, read, or even open.

Among the wasted paper and stamps, I received an offer for a credit card I won’t apply for (probably the fifth or sixth offer from the same company this year), a menu for a local pizza place (the same menu that I already have stuck to my refrigerator), and an offer for some car dealership (that I get at least once a month). As I tossed the junk into trash, it got me thinking; how much paper are all these companies wasting every year?

As it turns out, the United Postal Service had a shocking answer. The average US adult received 41 lbs. of junk mail every year. That amounts to thousands and thousands of pieces stamped, carried, delivered and then throwaway every year in every household in America.

Obviously, I realized two things. 1) I should go get a recycling bin and 2) This amount of junk mail is ridiculous!

So I decided to look a little further. Clearly, some amount of junk mail sent and received was working some of the time. Otherwise, companies wouldn’t be investing all that time and money in sending it to us (and after all I do still order from that pizza place on a regular basis).

There is an advocacy group called 41 lbs. Their mission it to call attention to the wastefulness that becomes of junk mail and work to decrease the waste that ends up in our mailboxes every day.

Their website says that, “More than 100 million trees are destroyed each year to produce junk mail.”

My initial reaction was how this is possible?! How is this a number and an issue that until now I had never heard of?

But there is hope. There are a number of websites willing to help you stop the junk mail cycle. Especially for people like me who often receive a lot of the same junk several times a month such as:

Ecocycle for a list of helpful tips in getting off junk mailing lists

opt out screenspress (for credit card offers)

http://directmail.com to get rid of other unsolicited offers

Between trying out these sites and getting on that recycling bin, I think I can get my 41 lbs of junk mail way down over the next year.