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April 1, 2008

‘Do Not Mail’ quest about junk as well as environment

By Cristin Ross

cross@jacksonvilleprogress.com

Sure they fight the rain and snow and dark of night — but if all the mail carrier delivers is junk mail, some people are saying don’t bother.

ForestEthics, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping corporations create positive environmental change, reports more than 20,000 people have signed its petition calling for a Do Not Mail Registry to stop the flood of junk mail in the U.S.

“We already know it’s annoying,” ForestEthics media officer Will Craven said. “And when you start thinking about the ecological impacts, it becomes intolerable, especially when you consider U.S. junk mail makes up 30 percent of all the world’s mail.”

According to the Web site www.DoNotMail.org, Americans get an estimated 105 billion pieces — 848 pieces per household — of junk mail a year. About 44 percent of that mail goes to the landfill unopened.

“We still spend eight months of our lives opening the rest,” the Web site states.

The site also reports annual junk mail production demolishes 100 million trees, creating as much greenhouse gas emissions as 3.7 million cars.

The Do Not Mail Registry is proposed to be modeled after the Do Not Call Registry, which allows telephone subscribers to opt out of telemarketing calls. The Do Not Mail Registry would also allow certain exemptions — like the Do Not Call Registry does — including non-profits, political campaigns and entities with whom a person does regular business.

The petition will be presented to U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the future.

“The Do Not Call Registry took 10 years (to pass),” Craven said, “and this registry has far more opposition. We will try to get it through a congressional hearing, but we’re open to any solution that will remedy the situation.

“We’re fortunate because there’s already a big popular demand for a Do Not Mail registry, but it’s going to take all of us getting together to overcome the opposition of a few special interest groups.”

ForestEthics already offers an opt-out tool on the Do Not Mail Web site, which is supposed to make it easier to reduce junk mail right now.

“While this won’t stop all your junk mail, it’s a good start,” the site states.

Eighteen states have introduced state bills to create a Do Not Mail Registry over the last year. None have passed.

Local post office officials declined to comment directly on the registry, but did say a decrease in deliverable junk mail would have a negative impact on the postal service, since the majority of the mail the post office handles is what people term “junk mail.”

The U.S. Postal Service employs 800,000 people nationwide.

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