By Simon Leufstedt
Monday, 11 August, 2008

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Simon Leufstedt is the editor of Green Blog. Simon has previously studied Global Environmental Justice and is currently studying Human Ecology and Political Science at Lund University in Sweden. Simon is also blogging over at the Swedish 350 website and working with the Swedish TckTckTck organisation. You can follow Simon on Twitter.

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Junk Mail Produces as Much CO2 as 9 Million Cars

Junk Mail Delivered!A newly released report by ForestEthics says that the junk mail in USA alone contributes to global warming as much as seven US states combined, or more than nine million cars, or the emissions generated by heating nearly 13 million homes for the winter.

Along with the junk mail report the ForestEthics group stressed the importance of their campaign and petition for a Do Not Mail Registry “to give Americans the choice to stop receiving junk mail.”

“This report confirms what Americans instinctively know: the scale of junk mail’s waste goes against all common sense,” says Todd Paglia, Executive Director of ForestEthics. “And the junk mail industry is incapable of policing itself on this matter– we need a Do Not Mail registry to give Americans a choice, and to enforce that choice.”

The Do Not Mail campaign was launched on March 12 of this year and already now has nearly 60000 signatures. The list contains well-known names such as those of Leonardo DiCaprio, Adrian Grenier, David Crosby and Daryl Hannah.

Another and more direct way to reduce junk mail can be by using a service like ProQuo.com. ProQuo is a free, easy-to-use Web site that allows consumers to remove themselves from the most commonly used marketing lists in a matter of minutes.

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  • CKW

    I signed the petition at donotmail.org

  • http://www.stopthejunkmail.com Margotb

    The advantage of using a junk mail service to stop catalogs is that we have all the information in one place. http://www.stopthejunkmail.com has a directory of over 9000 catalogs and direct mail companies to select from. We have been helping our members opt out of junk mail for over 7 years.

    Getting in on the act are also the Credit Bureaus who created their own website in order to help consumers clearly define their direct marketing needs, http://www.optoutprescreen.com

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