## Waging a war on junk mail
_By Jake Thomas, Resource Recycling_
Catalogs for stuff you don't want. Chances to "win big." Coupons for things you don't buy. Credit card offers you won't reply to. Is there anything to be done about the 4 million tons of junk mail sent annually? Well, one zero waste organization in Colorado, with the help of a national organization, has declared war on junk mail, and it's bringing a unique approach to the problem.
Since 1976, Eco-Cycle has been working to reduce waste as much as possible in Boulder County, through educational outreach, providing recycling collection services and even running a MRF, as well as offering other services. One of the long-standing goals of the organization has been to reduce waste at its source, and years ago it took aim at junk mail.
"It's more than irritating," said Eric Lombardi, executive director of Eco-Cycle, of the deluge of unwanted advertising delivered to peoples' mail boxes. "This sort of waste is something we have to start paying attention to."
Neshama Abraham, the manager of Eco-Cycle's Stop Junk Mail for GOOD program, says that about a year ago the nonprofit social enterprise stepped up its efforts to reduce junk mail after seeing Boulderites flock to [a page](http://ecocycle.org/junkmail) on its website that offered ways to stop unwanted solicitations clogging up their mail boxes.
One of the resources offered on Eco-Cycle's anti-junk mail website is Catalog Choice, a company that has helped 1.5 million consumers opt out of receiving unwanted mail. The Berkley, California-based company noticed that Eco-Cycle had been particularly active on the issue, and the two partnered together to further reduce junk mail.
Consumers who register with Catalog Choice can select what catalogs, coupons, credit card offers, donation requests and other solicitations they want to opt out of receiving. From there, Catalog Choice will contact the companies on behalf of the consumer, invoking a clause in most mailer's little-read privacy policies, requesting that the solicitations cease, according to Chuck Teller, the chief strategy officer for Catalog Choice.
Catalog Choice also offers a service called MailShield Stop, which prevents companies from selling consumers' personal information. The service normally costs about $20 per person and Eco-Cycle purchased it for each household asking for the service in Boulder County last year. So far, Eco-Cycle is a little over halfway to its goal of getting 5,000 new households registered with Catalog Choice by the end of the year.
"It's very hard to stop waste at the source, and this is one of the relatively few ways to do it," said Teller.
According to Eco-Cycle, over the last year it's offered the service, it has prevented 126,421 pounds of paper from being used, while saving 863 trees.
Eco-Cycle has been actively encouraging Boulderites to take steps to cut back on junk mail, with representatives doing outreach at farmers' markets, bike-to-work days and showing up at businesses to let people know what resources are available to them.
Recently, Eco-Cycle took it further by partnering with some of the area's larger employers to launch their own in-house junk mail opt-out efforts or help offer the service to their employees. Eco-Cycle and Catalog Choice have also begun working with Amgen, a local bio-technology company, on a pilot project to further reduce junk mail by allowing employees to opt-out of any unwanted solicitations sent to them at work.
Abraham said that Boulder is the only community she's aware of to work with local employers to reduce junk mail, which she said is particularly effective because so many get unwanted solicitations.
"That's something that's not a lot of businesses have taken on," she said.
But that could change. According to Teller, Catalog Choice will be launching initiatives with other companies to reduce junk mail at work.
"Your name and address is a commodity that's traded, and you have control over it," said Teller.
[ ](http://www.rotochopper.com/)
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URL: http://resource-recycling.com/node/3080
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