Did you know that Americans receive almost 4 million tons of junk mail every year? That represents 8 months of life spent opening it, and 90 million trees leveled each year to provide paper, 76% of which will end up in the trash (not the recycling). So how do you stop receiving junk mail?

One company we’ve been happily using is Catalog Choice, a non-profit corporation based in Berkeley, California. Once you have created an account with them (for free), you can browse an alphabetical list of over 1,350 titles. (If you don’t find the one you are looking for, you can suggest it.) You will then set your mail preference for selected companies, indicating your mailing address (you can have more than one) and in some cases providing a customer number and/or a source or key code, usually placed in a colored-box by your name on the catalog.  The whole process is very quick. A few weeks from then, the participating company will have honored your mail preference (they don’t want to upset you and have you never shop in their store ever again), and your mail box will once again only receive worthwhile mail. Your personal information is kept private as Catalog Choice does not sell, rent or otherwise share your contact details with anyone.

Another company, DMAchoice.org, helps you manage your mail by category: credit card offers, catalogs, magazine offers and other mail offers. But we’ve found that their catalog category is not very user-friendly and you will waste time being sent to companies’ websites, trying to figure out where to unsubscribe.  The credit card offers category is easier to use, but they actually send you straight to another website, optoutprescreen.com, so you might as well go there yourself directly and cut down the process time. OptOutPrescreen.com is the official Consumer Credit Reporting Industry website.

For more useful information about how to stop receiving unwanted junk mail from list brokers, coupons, ads and product samples,  you can visit the Los Angeles Department of Public Works.  

Don’t delay! Stop unwanted junk mail now, stop the useless leveling of trees now! And in the meantime, please recycle!