Get Rid of Junk Mail – Help Save the Environment, Save Time and Create Better Work Life Balance. These Junk Mail Stats are Scary!

Need to find work life balance? Junk mail is literally one of the most maddening things we have to deal with. I understand that the production is due to people who are trying to conduct business.

After all, I love entrepreneurship and have owned multiple businesses throughout my life. Yet, as entrepreneurs, parents, spouses, and friends, we are also always looking for ways to save time, find work life balance, and achieve all at once.

But if we are going to be successful, junk mail might not be the best way to go for a number of reasons. By and large, it’s ineffective. It’s also bad for the environment and it wastes massive amounts of time.

Save Time: Check out the UNREAL statistics on the waste created by junk mail:

1. More than 100 million trees are destroyed each year to produce junk mail, and 42% of timber harvested nationwide becomes pulpwood for paper.
2. Creating and shipping junk mail produces more greenhouse gas emissions than 9 million cars.
3. About 28 billion gallons of water are wasted to produce and recycle junk each year. The pulp and paper industry is the single largest consumer of water used in industrial activities in developed countries, and it’s the third-largest industrial greenhouse gas emitter (after the chemical and steel industries).
4. You waste about 70 hours a year dealing with junk mail.
5. The average adult receives 41 pounds of junk mail each year (44% goes to the landfill unopened).
6. On average, we receive 16 pieces of junk mail a week, compared to only 1.5 personal letters.
7. 40% of the solid mass that makes up our landfills is paper and paperboard waste. Junk mail inks have high concentrations of heavy metals, making the paper difficult to recycle.
8. $320 million of local taxes are used to dispose of junk mail each year. California’s state and local governments spend $500,000 a year collecting and disposing of AOL’s direct mail disks alone.
9. Transporting junk mail costs $550 million a year.
10. Lists of names and addresses used in bulk mailings reside in mass data-collection networks. Your name is typically worth 3 to 20 cents each time it is sold.
11. In 5 days we produce enough junk mail to reach the moon.
12. Junk mail weighs almost double the entire fleet of  the US Military’s tanks.

Susan Sly is a best selling author, work life balance expert, speaker and entrepreneur. She has appeared on CNN, CNBC, Fox, Lifetime Television and the CBN. Susan is the mother of four children and resides in Scottsdale, Arizona.