Facts about Junk Mail

• The average person gets only 1.5 personal letters each week, compared to 10.8 pieces of junk mail. Each person will receive almost 560 pieces of junk mail this year. That's 4.5 million tons of junk mail produced each year!
• Approximately 40% of the solid mass that makes up our landfills is paper and paperboard waste (by the year 2010, it is predicted to make up about 48%).
• 100 million trees are ground up each year to produce junk mail.

Reduce the amount of junk mail you receive:

Step 1 - To have your name removed from mailing lists used for unsolicited credit and insurance offers (Virtually all companies offering pre-approved credit cards use lists from these three major credit bureaus) call any of the companies below.
     • Equifax, PO Box 740123, Atlanta, GA 30374-0123 - Phone: (888) 567-8688
     • Experian (formerly TRW), Target Marketing Services Division, 12606 Greenville Ave, Dallas, TX 75243 - Phone: (800) 353-0809
     • TransUnion, 555 West Adams Street, Chicago, IL 60661 - Phone: (800)  680-7293

Step 2 - The Direct Marketing Association represents many mail order sales companies, and estimates that listing your name with their mail preference service will stop 75% of all national mailings coming to your home. Call or write and ask to be added to their suppression list.
     • D.M.A. Preference Service, Box 9008, Farmingdale, NY 11735 - Phone: (212) 768-7277

Step 3 - Companies that do not participate in the D.M.A. program must be contacted directly. In addition, if you only want some of your junk mail stopped, contacting individual companies is the way to go. You can write to firms that send you unsolicited material and tell them firmly to stop. Be sure to use the enclosed Business Reply envelopes when replying through the mail, and address them to Customer Service. You can also call the firms' toll free numbers and ask to speak with customer service.

Step 4 - Buyers beware... you are covered under a manufacturer's warranty whether a card is returned or not. These cards are primarily used to gather names for mailing lists. Write National Demographics & Lifestyles, a firm that collects this information, to have your name removed.
     • NDL List Order Services, 1621 18th Street, Suite 300, Denver, CO 80202

Step 5 - To remove your name from major nationwide sweepstakes mailers, contact:
     • Publishers Clearinghouse, 101 Channel Drive, Port Washington, NY 11050
      Phone: (800) 645-9242
     • Readers Digest, Readers Digest Road, Pleasantville, NY 10570 - Phone:
       (800) 234-9000
     •American Family Publishers, PO Box 62000, Tampa, FL 33662 - Phone:
       (800) 237-2400

Excerpts from Eliminate Junk Mail