Credit card junk mail

How much effort goes into these mailings? One thing you may admire is their ingenuity and creativity in tempting you to open these envelopes. But obviously, there is a cost involved, not just in paper, printing and mailing, but also in waste. According to this website, junk mail creates four million tons of preventable waste each year, fills three percent of America's landfills, costing taxpayers $320 million in disposal fees annually, destroys 62 million trees a year, creates 28 billion gallons of waste water per year. These statistics are for all junk mail, which is in my case in the majority credit cards.

I found it difficult to establish the marketing costs of credit card companies through junk mail. But here are some benchmarks: ADVO, the largest mass mailing company spends $500 million a year in postage. According to this website, marketers spent in 2002 $49.1 billion on direct mail, with credit card companies sending $4 billion pieces of mail.

There are ways to reduce the junk mail, which I list below. I cannot warrant for their effectiveness, though:

• Privacy Rights Clearing House
• Federal Trade Commission Consumer Alert
• OptOutPrescreen.com
• Do-it-yourself: Stop junk mail, email and phone calls
• junkmailstopper.com