I followed a reader tip to 41pounds.org, and was delighted to read about this junk mail battling organization. I hate junk mail more than anything– every time I open my mailbox and it’s overflowing with crap, I can’t help but to think how much of a waste it is. Why can’t Dominos Pizza use the freaking internet to advertise? Did you know that every year you get about (you guessed it) 41 lbs. of junk mail? 41pounds is equally fed up, and they’ve decided to do something about it. For $41 per 5 years of service, they will contact the 20 or so companies that are responsible for filling your mailbox with pizza coupons and have you taken off of their list. On top of that, they’ll donate more than half of their profits to charities supporting education, conservation, and re-forestation efforts. From all of us (except those of you who make money off of junk mail marketing): thank you 41pounds.org! More freaky facts about junk mail after el jumpo…

Via idunited


Junk Mail as it Affects You:

More than 4 million tons (62,000,000,000 (billion) pieces) of junk mail are produced yearly.

California's state and local governments spend $500,000 each year collecting and disposing of AOL's direct mail disks alone.

$320 million of local taxes are used to dispose of unsolicited mail each year.
It costs $550 million yearly to transport junk mail.

Junk Mail as it Affects the Environment:

100 million trees are ground up each year for unsolicited mail.

42% of timber harvested nationwide ends up as pulpwood for paper.

It wastes 28 billion gallons of water for paper processing each year.

If you cut your bulk mail for 5 years, you'll conserve 1.7 trees, 700 gallons of water and prevent 460 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the air.


Tony F. Sunday, 04.01.07 @ 10:43 pm

There’s another org that does this, too: http://www.greendimes.com.


Local Tree Child Monday, 04.02.07 @ 4:13 am

Privacy, in some countries in Europe you just put up a “No commercial mail, Thanks”-sign and thats it. Very simple and completely free. Thank you legislators for letting me decide what I want in my mailbox.

As for Dominos using the internet; think about the spamload man.


B Tuesday, 04.03.07 @ 4:26 pm

GreenDimes also plants one tree every month for its members – a great service for $36 per year – they get reduce waste AND replenish resources!


MauiChris Wednesday, 04.04.07 @ 12:04 pm

You can opt out of a lot of junk mail and even junk credit card offers through a few websites.

The FTC website has more info on how to opt out of Direct Mail for 7years, Opt out of prescreened credit offers (very important to protect from Identity Theft) and also put your name on the Do Not Call list.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt063.htm

Well worth the few minutes and $1 it takes to never worry about junk mail.


Jennifer Brady Thursday, 04.05.07 @ 2:50 pm

wow – its great to see so many people supporting greendimes.com – I guess I will at my ‘10 cents’ :) lol…

I heard 41pounds is a company in a garage with just two guys who dont actually do anything, they just scam people for their money…

I am a proud member of greendimes.com and my junk mail is gone… :)

I highly recommend greendimes.com and actually I will be writing a letter to consumer reports about 41pounds and their lies…

thanks!

-
Jen


Christine Thursday, 04.05.07 @ 7:08 pm

Two guys in their garage totally explains why they have nothing to show for where their 50% of profits is going. With Greendimes they are actually planting trees with the profits.


riverdweller Wednesday, 04.11.07 @ 10:39 am

i paid the $41 to 41 Pounds and i could not be happier with the improvement it has made in my life. they send you a bunch of forms to fill out so how do you explain them doing “nothing”? sounds like someone from the greendimes family wants to put down a more economical competitor. i was willing to risk $41 once for 5 years for my entire household compared to the cost of greendimes- i don’t want to pay by the year and i can’t afford a lifetime membership ($360).

and honestly if you wanted to you absolutely can do all of what these companies do on your own, but i have done it in the past and it is wildly time consuming. knowing what it takes to actually do everything on your own makes you appreciate paying someone else to do it for you.


Tim Pfannes Friday, 04.27.07 @ 7:25 pm

To correct the untrue statements made in previous postings…I’m a co-founder of 41 Pounds:

Our service reduces household junk mail by 85-90% and lasts for 5 years – at a cost of $8.20 per year ($41 total). We stop most common junk mail such as credit card offers, coupon mailers, and insurance promotions, as well as the catalogs you specify (currently our record is over 250 catalog companies contacted for 1 subscriber).

We’re proud to have raised more than $25,000 for environmental and community organizations in our short history – including Trees for the Future, American Forests, WildWest Institute, Friends of the Urban Forest and Habitat for Humanity (East Bay). When you sign up for the 41 Pounds service, we donate more than 1/3 of your fee to the nonprofit organization you select.

41 Pounds was founded by my two brothers and myself in Ferndale, Michigan. We have lean, cost-effective operations, and we pass on that benefit to the nonprofit groups in the form of major donations every month.

About doing it yourself — yes, you can do all the leg-work yourself to remove yourself from all the direct mail and catalog lists out there, but it will take you quite awhile. We contact 20 to 35 direct marketing companies and catalog companies and instruct them to remove your name from their distribution lists. We do it efficiently, and our customers tell us it’s worth every cent!

If you have any questions about our service, please go to http://www.41pounds.org or feel free to contact me directly [tim@41pounds.org]

Let’s all stop junk mail and save trees, water, energy, and time!

- Tim


Tim Pfannes Monday, 05.07.07 @ 11:40 am

To correct the untrue statements made in previous postings…I’m a co-founder of 41 Pounds:

Our service reduces household junk mail by 85-90% and lasts for 5 years – at a cost of $8.20 per year ($41 total). We stop most common junk mail such as credit card offers, coupon mailers, and insurance promotions, as well as the catalogs you specify.

We’re proud to have raised more than $25,000 for environmental and community organizations in our short history – including Trees for the Future, American Forests, WildWest Institute, Friends of the Urban Forest and Habitat for Humanity (East Bay). When you sign up for the 41 Pounds service, we donate more than 1/3 of your fee to the nonprofit organization you select.

41 Pounds was founded by my two brothers and myself in Ferndale, Michigan. We have lean, cost-effective operations, and we pass on that benefit to the nonprofit groups in the form of major donations every month.

About doing it yourself — yes, you can do all the leg-work yourself to remove yourself from all the direct mail and catalog lists out there, but it will take you quite awhile. We contact 20 to 35 direct marketing companies and catalog companies and instruct them to remove your name from their distribution lists. We do it efficiently, and our customers tell us it’s worth every cent!

If you have any questions about our service, please go to http://www.41pounds.org or contact me [tim@41pounds.org]

Let’s all stop junk mail and save trees, water, energy, and time!

- Tim


Sam and Kate Monday, 01.05.09 @ 7:04 pm

this is an amazing site cause we are doing this for a school project and it is a really good idea!




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