| In June, I began tracking the junk mail I was receiving. A plea to embark on Princess Cruises. Preapproved credit card offers from banks I'd never heard of. Some weeks, more than a dozen pieces of unsolicited marketing mail — a.k.a. junk mail — clogged my mailbox. I'm not alone. Mail volumes in the United States peaked in 2011, but junk mail has continued almost unabated. Last year, roughly 63 billion catalogues, postcards, catalogue offers and coupon booklets arrived in America's mailboxes. That's 62 percent of all U.S. household mail, reports the U.S. Postal Service. This takes a heavy environmental toll. The typical American receives about 41 pounds of junk mail each year, according to the Center for Development of Recycling at San José State University, and much of it ends up in landfills. The Sierra Club estimates 80 to 100 million trees are cut down each year to print junk mail, while cities and counties spend $1 billion a year to collect and dispose of it. So after years of ignoring or recycling unwanted solicitations, I set out to get my mailbox as close to zero junk mail as possible. Why Americans get so much junk mail The advent of the typewriter allowed retailers to send out cheap blasts of advertisements in the early 20th century. Americans were soon flooded with fliers, postcards and catalogues. The Postal Service estimates these "third-class" mailings swelled from 301 million pieces in 1880 to more than 6 billion pieces by 1930. In 2005, marketing mail eclipsed first-class mail (what people tend to use for letters) for the first time. Junk mail is a lifeline for the post office. In 1970, Congress withdrew taxpayer dollars for the agency, passing a law directing it to act like a business by covering its costs, but still required it to cover inherently unprofitable parts of running a nationwide postal system delivering to far-flung, often rural parts of the country. Desperate for money, the Postal Service opened the floodgates to marketers at one-third the cost of standard mail. Today, marketing mail generates $16 billion — 20 percent of the agency's revenue — and represents the majority of all mail sent in the United States. This diminishes any chance the United States, unlike the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Canada, will move to restrict junk mail anytime soon. Also, it works. Businesses spend about $225 per person in the United States annually on direct-mail advertising. the post office estimates two-thirds of households read or scan their junk mail, while 11 percent say they respond to mailers. Three ways to stop junk mail Stop most advertisements: Check out the Association of National Advertisers' DMAchoice.org. This service lets you stop delivery of catalogues, magazine offers and other junk items from charities, banks and national brands. DMAchoice says this will stop 80 percent of promotional offers since marketers would rather contact people willing to receive their mail. Stop credit card and insurance offers: Never want to see another prescreened credit or insurance offer in the mail? The 1996 Fair Credit Reporting Act led to the creation of OptOutPrescreen.com. The website allows you to opt out for five years online or by calling 888-567-8688. To stop offers forever, you'll need to sign and return the Permanent Opt-Out Election form. The entire process takes a few weeks to complete, but it only took a few minutes to fill out the form. Stop mail from specific businesses: For that, I turned to two services able to take my name off mailing lists of retailers, marketers and charities. Companies you've done business with in the past few years may still be allowed to contact you, charities may sell your name, and some just slip through the cracks. Check out my column to read the rest. | 
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