By: Alice Grendon | Communications Coordinator, Thurston Climate Action Team

Every year more than 100 million trees are killed in order to send the average American household  848 pieces of paper that end up in the trash. That’s the same as deforesting three Rocky Mountain National Parks each year. Not only that, but the creation of junk mail wastes approximately 28 billion gallons of water annually. Additionally, producing these mailings creates the same amount of yearly Greenhouse Gas emissions as 9 million cars.

We cannot afford to continue losing trees to junk-mail. Trees are a vital part of the climate solution as one of the most powerful and effective sequesters of carbon. Project Drawdown rates forest restoration as the 5^th most impactful method to drawdown and store Carbon Dioxide (CO2). That means we need to be planting more trees, not cutting them down for unwanted catalogs. 

There are many pieces of the climate crisis and climate solutions that can feel insurmountable at times. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the problem. In my own life taking small and concrete actions can help to lower the anxieties I feel about the crisis and combat a sense of helplessness. I offer you this one very easy thing you can do today: unsubscribe from unwanted catalogues.

Go to Catalog Choice, a free online resource to opt-out of unwanted catalogs and other junk mail.

Since its launch in 2007, the Catalog Choice project has kept over a million trees in the ground, continuing to store carbon, has kept a billion pounds of CO2 out of the atmosphere and many tons of paper waste out of landfills.