According to the most recent estimate completed by NYU Law (2016), 5.6 million tons of catalogs and marketing-junk mail end up in landfills each year. That equates to about 100 million trees that are cut down to produce mail that is immediately discarded. Not to mention, all catalogs and junk mail can be recycled! With easy access to information and shopping online, many people find the clutter of junk mail and catalogs to be annoying and unnecessary. 

Did you know that you can drastically reduce the amount of junk mail and catalogs you receive? These services can help you fight waste and simplify your life! 

FREE/MINIMAL FEE

Catalog Choice: Save up the catalogs you receive over the course of each month and cancel them in one big sweep on Catalog Choice at the end of the month. Sign up for a free account then simply type in the catalog name and your info to opt out. For any catalogs that aren’t part of their database, Catalog Choice provides the phone number to call directly. 

Credit Card Offers: You can opt-out of offers that come from one of the four major consumer credit reporting agencies for 5 years by using optoutprescreen.com.

Mailing Lists: You can register online with the Direct Marketing Association’s mail preference service to remove yourself from other national mailing lists. For a one time fee, you can remove yourself from common mailing lists for 10 years! 

• Online registration: $2 fee for online processing
• Mail-in registration: $3 fee, submit check or money order payable to ANA (no cash) to DMAchoice, Consumer Preferences, P.O. Box 900, Cos Cob, CT 06807

Valpak: You can suppress your address from Valpak (those blue envelopes filled with coupons) mailings here.

RetailMeNot: Unsubscribe from their mailers here.

PAID SERVICE

The PaperKarma app helps you stop junk mail for a yearly fee of $25. Using your smartphone, you take a picture of your unwanted mail and press “Unsubscribe” to remove yourself from PaperKarma’s partner marketing lists. In about 24 hours you’ll receive a notification that you’ve been unsubscribed. PaperKarma works with most associations, catalogs, charities, coupon offers, credit offers, direct marketers, insurance offers, local mailers, magazines, and national mailers.