Time and paper are precious resources. Junk mail, email spam and unsolicited phone calls waste both time and paper, so let's get rid of them!
Globally, it is estimated that 100 million trees are harvested to produce junk mail each year. In Australia, 8.2 billion articles of junk mail are produced every year, along with over 650 million articles of addressed promotional mail.
Most of this mail is never read.
In addition, a recent study by Nucleus Research estimates that spam costs Australian businesses an average of $900 per employee per year in lost productivity, or approximately $8 billion per year across the Australian economy.
And then there are those unsolicited sales calls at home.
Our time and money is wasted and trees unnecessarily harvested. Stop this happening to you.
How to do it now!
Stop unsolicited sales calls at home
Put your home phone number on the Federal Government managed Do Not Call Register.
Stop junk mail hitting your letterbox
Get a 'No Junk Mail' sticker or sign (from your local hardware store) and put it on your letterbox. Alternatively, a “No Advertising Material" sticker is available free of charge from the Distribution Standards Board. Call 1800 676 136 for more information.
If you continue to receive junk mail despite the 'No Junk Mail' sign or sticker, contact and complain to the Distribution Standards Board by visiting The Australian Catalogue Association site or call them on 1800 676 136.
In addition, by contacting the Australian Direct Marketing Authority on (02) 9277 5400, you can ask them to put your name onto their 'Do not Call, Do not Mail' list. Your name will be circulated to list brokers, who take your name off their list. After approximately six weeks your unsolicited addressed promotional mail will start decreasing.
Fight spam
There are several layers of response to spam.
Set up your email spam filters
- All email and virus programs have spam-filtering functionality, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) often offer additional spam-fighting services.
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Set the feds on the spammers
Report spam to the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
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Pursue the spammers and have ISPs block their email, sites and businesses.
The Coalition Against Unsolicited Bulk Email has a good guide that helps you track spammers and get ISPs to blacklist (block) spam email.
Additional resources
Why is this action important?
Deforestation in Australia and the importation of wood and paper from overseas contribute to the ecological crisis both here and in other countries. To reduce our impact on the environment we must identify and stop those practices that use resources (natural, human and financial) in an unsustainable manner. Unsolicited and intrusive advertising is bad for the environment and can be avoided.
Why Do This Action?
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Reduce water use
Environment
Trees are the best carbon storage mechanisms, but they are being harvested in their millions to produce junk mail that most people don't even read. Losing over 100 million trees each year is a high price to pay to be harassed via our letterboxes for what we can read online if and when we choose to.
Wellbeing
We are all tired of being called in the middle of dinner to be told about the latest great phone offer, or sifting spam from our inbox every day. Life is too short.
