Paperless Pipe Dream

The Crew at Design Commission has been filing our junk mail for the last month. At the onset, stockpiling heaps of paper sounded fun, and we even daydreamed about sending stinky paper pulp to CEOs and directors of advertising at Office Max. Sadly, this paper onslaught has only made us realize that as junk mail recipients, we are partly responsible for global warming. Sure, our 35 pieces of junk mail a month may be a tiny drop in the bucket, but just how big is this bucket anyway?

• Americans’ total yearly paper waste would fill a convoy of garbage trucks, bumper to bumper, long enough to wrap around the earth six times and reach halfway to the moon. It is estimated that this year, 222 million tons of waste will be generated by Americans.
• The U.S. Postal Service delivers more than 87 billion pieces of direct mail (advertising and promotional mail) every year.
• More than 100 million trees’ worth of junk mail arrive in American mail boxes each year – that’s the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months.
• The production and disposal of direct mail consumes more energy than 2.8 million cars.
• If one person stopped getting their junk mail for five years, they would conserve 1.7 trees, 700 gallons of water, and prevent 460 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the air.

We want to be proactive in saving trees, and if you do too, we urge you to visit Websites that fight the good fight against junk mail. One of our faves? ProQuo.