One Thing: June - Debulking the Mailbox

Look closely, that's not Benen. Because he is not setting the pile on fire. I'm just saying!

Anyway- my friend River took this photograph of his beautiful boy sitting on all the unsolicited mail they had received in the first year of Alex's life from (oh-the-irony) conservation organizations - think Sierra Club, Earth First, you get the picture. He sent this picture to each of those organizations via e-mail and challenged each of them to consider the environmental impact of their chosen method for fundraising. He even offered to support those organizations that could revise their methods and solicit electronically. I'm not sure what kinds of responses he got, but the picture is about as good as it gets for photographic activism. The guy's a genius. I was thrilled when he endorsed my use of the picture for our June's "One Thing".

For June, with pretty minimal effort, we've resolved to minimize mail coming in. I've been whittling away at our "junk mail" slowly over the past two years with sporadic effort - calling catalog companies when I receive a catalog in the mail and being asked to be removed from mailing lists, opting to receive bank statements and bills online, and rethinking our magazine subscriptions and their real value in our lives (gads! I am actually ready to give up Martha!)...but I am focusing carefully on the other ways I can minimize the flow of paper that goes from the mailbox to the recycling bin with rapid turnover. I've provided some links below that I have been visiting in this quest. Next week I will also be taking River's lead and contacting the philanthropic organizations I support and requesting that they stop mailings to our home, and making my continued support contingent on their ability to respond accordingly.

http://www.abacusoptout.com/

http://www.optoutprescreen.com/

http://www.catalogchoice.org/

http://www.dmachoice.org/consumerassistance.php

and to opt out of many circulars: call 1-888-5OPTOUT

I would really like to hear of any other resources or strategies you and yours have for keeping the mailbox light.