Junk Mail

Waste and Disposal

An estimated 44 percent of all junk mail goes to landfills unopened, and the estimated response rate to junk mail is less than 2–3 percent. Credit card companies report that a response rate of 0.25 percent is acceptable. Because of the acceptability of such a low response rate, environmentalists point out the immensity of the impact of junk mail. Some studies report upward of 100 million trees to produce all of the junk mail in the United States in a given year. Compounding this, the greenhouse gas effect of all of this junk mail is over 51 million metric tons of greenhouse gases. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, less than 50 percent of the junk mail received is actually recycled.

Direct Mail

A new phenomenon is the emergence of direct mail. Through the use of databases, direct mail is customized and individualized and sent to specific consumers. Direct mail may involve products beyond the paper that is commonly used in junk mail. Plastic bags, catalogs, mailings that resemble paperback books, and even small boxes are examples. The potential environmental impacts of direct mail are large considering the volume of mail that is sent to consumers and the types of products used for the mailings. Nineteen billion consumer catalogs, including those printed on glossy paper, are sent on average to U.S. consumers. The environmental effect of catalogs printed on materials that are less easy to recycle is substantial.

Reduction Efforts

Consumers have called on politicians and advocacy groups to curb the expansion of junk mail. The city of San Francisco called on the state of California to create a statewide Do Not Mail Registry; other states, including Florida and New York, have brought forward similar legislation. In the United States, consumers are often unable to opt out of mass junk mailings because of the postal service's insistence that it is providing a service for companies that pay to send their messages to consumers. Thus, the economic motivations of capitalism can be attributed to the challenges faced by consumers and advocacy groups that wish to curtail the junk mail phenomenon.

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