The Junk Mail Effect

Hot on the heels of LCBO's voluntary plastic bag ban, the coming into force of Canada's (flimsy) Do Not Telemarket List, and the accelerating pace of judgments against e-mail spammers, ForestEthics has released a report tabulating the carbon footprint of the American junk mail industry.

Their result? Junk mail’s contribution to climate change was calculated as the equivalent of running more than nine million cars for a year, the carbon output of seven combined US states, or the emissions generated by heating nearly 13 million homes for the winter. It is also responsible for the cutting of some 100 million trees.

Their solution? A Do Not Mail Registry, similar in design and intent of similar do not spam and do not telemarket exclusion registries.

I'm wary of the efficacy of such lists -- it would seem to provide unsavory operators with a list of confirmed good contacts -- but you can't deny the shift in mindset it represents against the nearly unrestrained right of commercial advertising to besiege our minds with a plague of fantasies.

What's next, a ban on outdoor urban billboard advertising?

August 10th, 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: junk mail, no logos, get off my lawn