A couple of months ago I finally got completely overwhelmed by the amount of junk mail that was coming into my home and office. I was stunned by the fact that each week my family was filling our 64 gallon recycling bin - mostly with paper products (and of course the occasional empty wine bottle, but I digress). :-)
Every year more than 100,000,000 trees are chopped down and 28 billion gallons of water are wasted to produce junk mail. I decided to do something about it.
I researched the ways to eliminate the amount of junk mail we receive - to get our names removed from direct marketing lists and discovered many solutions, most of which can be found at stopjunkmail.org.
Ultimately I decided to join Greendimes.org. For a dime-a-day (only $36 per year), GreenDimes will reduce the amount of junk mail you receive, will help you maintain your privacy so your name doesn't get placed on more mailing lists and will plant a lot of trees on your behalf!
Greendimes has already:
- Stopped more than 276,000 pounds of junk mail
- Planted/saved 143,000+ treess
- Saved more than 707,000 gallons of water
... in the US and Canada and has plans to launch its service in the UK soon.
I don't usually tout businesses on this blog, but this one is worth an endorsement in my opinion. So, I invite you to join me as a member of Greendimes.org.
Here are some other ways we can also take better care of our earth - today on Earth Day and everyday!
* Turn your thermostat a degree lower in the winter. If every home in America did this, we'd save enough energy to power all the homes in Iowa for a year.
* Take a shorter shower. If Americans subtracted one minute from their daily showers, we'd save twice the amount of freshwater withdrawn from the Great Lakes every day.
* Reuse ribbon and wrapping paper. If two-thirds of Americans each saved an arm's length of ribbon this year, we could tie a bow around the earth!
These ideas are included in The Green Book, by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen, which will be available in stores and online June 19, 2007.
HAPPY EARTH DAY!
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