The Facts about Junk Mail

American mailboxes are inundated with junk mail. More than 100,000,000,000 pieces of junk mail are delivered each year—that’s more than 800 pieces per household. In fact, junk mail in the United States accounts for one-third of all the mail delivered in the world. Even though 44% of that mail goes to the landfill unopened, we still spend 8 months of our lives dealing with it all.

But junk mail does more than invade our homes and waste our time; it also destroys our environment.  

Junk mail contributes to climate change — read our report, Climate Change Enclosed.

• It takes more than 100 million trees to produce the total volume of junk mail that arrives in American mailboxes each year—that's the equivalent of clearcutting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every 4 months.¹⁰

• The manufacture of junk mail releases more greenhouse gas emissions per year than the emissions released by 9,372,000 million average passenger cars.¹¹  Check out the side bar to find out more facts about the Junk Mail Effect, or read our full report.
  

• The Canadian Boreal forms part of the greater Boreal Forest, which stores more carbon than any other terrestrial ecosystem on earth.¹² Despite this natural ability to protect us from the effects of global warming, the Canadian Boreal is being logged at a rate of 2 acres a minute, 24 hours a day¹³ to produce junk mail and other paper products.

• Deforestation of Indonesia’s tropical forests is responsible for 8% of global carbon emissions.¹⁴ This destruction is largely driven by demand for pulp and paper for end uses like junk mail. Logging contributes to Indonesia’s status as the world’s third largest emitter of CO2 into the Earth’s atmosphere, despite its relatively small size.¹⁵

• Both Canada’s Boreal and Indonesia’s tropical forests are home to indigenous communities who depend on the land for hunting, fishing, economic development and cultural activities.

• The Boreal provides critical habitat to caribou and half of North America’s songbird species.¹⁶ Indonesia is home to 12% of Earth’s mammal species, and 17% of all bird species.¹⁷ Many of these, including endangered orangutans and tigers, rely on Indonesia’s rapidly disappearing tropical rainforests for their survival.

  >Learn more about the Boreal Forest
  

Junk Mail Overflows Our Mailboxes

• Junk mail in the U.S. accounts for over 100,000,000,000 pieces of mail each year¹—about 30% of all the mail delivered in the world.²

• Every year American households receive a total of 104.7 billion pieces of junk mail³ or 848 pieces of junk mail per household,⁴ which requires 6.5 million tons of paper.⁵

• Approximately 44% of junk mail goes to landfills unopened;⁶ the average American will spend 8 months of their lives dealing with junk mail.⁷

• Entire households only average 1 personal correspondence each week, compared to almost 18 pieces of junk mail.⁸

• In 2005 the United States Postal Service processed more junk mail than First Class Mail for the first time, and our postal service is increasingly oriented toward the delivery of unwanted junk mail.⁹

Landfills and Junk Mail

• It would take the equivalent of over 500,000 garbage truck loads to dump all junk mail into landfills and incinerators each year.¹⁸

• By the year 2010, almost 50% of the solid mass that makes up our landfills is expected to be paper and paperboard waste.¹⁹

• State and local governments and their citizens spend hundreds of millions of dollars per year to collect and dispose of all the bulk mail that does not get recycled.²⁰

• 6.5 million tons of discounted junk mail entered the U.S. municipal solid waste stream in 2006.²¹

Junk Mail is Inefficient

• A response rate of less than 0.25% is considered acceptable for the 500 million U.S. credit card solicitations that are mailed monthly.²²

• A national poll by Zogby International found that 92% of respondents discard or recycle at least some of their junk mail without reading it.²³

People Really Want a Do Not Mail Registry…And They Have Been Waiting Over 15 Years

• Since 1991, national polls have consistently shown that between 80 and 90% of respondents dislike junk mail and would take some action to reduce it if they could. 

• In the Zogby International poll, 93% of respondents were aware of the Do Not Call Registry and 89% of them supported a Do Not Mail Registry to make it easier to opt out of unsolicited ad mail.²⁴

  >See how many people have signed in your state!

For more information on the Do Not Mail campaign and how you can help stop junk mail, email donotmail@forestethics.org.

>View our resources page.