It is so refreshing to be able to go to the letter box and come back without a pile of advertising. And, if stats from the North Shore City Council can be extrapolated to my region, it seems our home will save more than 30kg waste per year. Check out the link below if you are interested.
www.northshorecity.govt.nz/PDFs/WasteMinimisationPDF/Reducing-Junk-
In the study the households received on average 3.65kg of junk mail per month! The trial was done in 2005 and my guess would be that junk mail has increased since then. The main offenders were real estate agents, The Warehouse and supermarkets - no surprises there!Aren't we already bombarded with enough advertising everyday without willingly bringing more into our homes?
I guess I already knew that junk mail was a waste but I had not really thought about the global implications. For example, every year 100 million trees are cut down to produce junk mail. And of course the transport, paper production process, printing, distribution, recycling and landfill all contribute to the carbon footprint. Check out the links below for some frightening stats.
http://donotmail.org/article.php?list=type&type=3
This week we have still be receiving the local papers. Some sneaky advertisers have cottoned-on are still burdening me with their rubbish by getting it slipped into the local papers. I do think that the community paper serves a purpose. However, I hardly ever read it (gasp). So my next very simple project to help save the planet is to put a "No circulars" sign on our letter box also.
Wow, I feel like a save-the-earth superhero.
3 comments:
my mother works at the bookstore right? when they don't sell magazines, they just throw them away. that's almost worse because our lack of purchase doesn't even make that much of a difference!
I wish other people could see the big picture, realise what we're doing to the world.
I applaud your efforts!
No jokes this time! I am inspired by your ideas but what about those people (like me) who actually do read all the junk mail and use the food catalogues to search out the bargains and lower their weekly shopping bill so as to live within their means? My biggest hurdle for not buying organic is the extra price and the hurdle for growing my own is the time!
I agree - buying organic is a lot more expensive and is not really an affordable option for most people.
As for the weekly bargains, well thanks to modern technology, you can now get the catalogues on line:
http://catalogues.coles.com.au/portal/
http://www.iga.net.au/index.cfm?page_id=2277
http://woolworths.smedia.com.au/specials//searchcatalogue.php
Ah ha, perhaps cyberspace will save our earth for us after all!
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