Summary: In just 5 days, we produce enough junk mail to reach the moon and back, according to an article from Hubspot. Equally staggering is the fact that approximately 44% of that mail goes unopened, and only a fraction of that gets recycled. Our landfills are filling up with junk... junk mail!! And that is only part of the impact on the environment. Junk mail destroys 100 million trees a year—the equivalent of deforesting all of Rocky Mountain National Park every four months. In the process of just creating and shipping junk mail, we produce more greenhouse gas emissions than 9 million cars. Billions and billions of gallons of water are wasted to produce and recycle junk mail. We could go on and on about the devastation that junk mail causes to the environment because the facts are simply beyond belief. While the cost to the environment is first and foremost in the minds of many, the financial impact of junk mail is also out of control. Transporting junk mail costs about $500 million a year, and another $320 million in local taxes are used to dispose of junk mail each year.
