For those of you who don't know, Earth Day is April 22, and Arbor Day is April 25. In the spirit of thinking about the environment, I came across some interesting statistics which, when you put them together, give some shocking conclusions. The first piece of information is an article about the volume of mail sent through the US Postal Service each year (over 100 Billion pieces of junk mail). The second piece of information is actually a couple different statistics I gathered on the web, such as the size of a business envelope, US population estimates, the number of inches in a mile, distance from the Earth to the Moon, and so on. I was horrified to find out how much outbound marketing is destroying the environment.
Shocking Junk Mail Statistics & Environmental Damage
- Junk Mail Kills 2.6 Million Trees Every Year. I assumed each piece of "standard mail" was junk mail (this is only about 50% of the total volume of US Mail) and assumed that junk mail uses 2 sheets of paper (1 envelope and 1 letter), found the number of sheets of paper per tree, and did some math. Of course some junk mail is only a postcard, but some is a catalog. And some does use recycled paper. But I did not factor in any of the damage caused by all those trucks burning gas to deliver all the mail either.
- Every US Household Gets 6 Pieces of Junk Mail Each Day. I took the total volume of junk mail and divided by the number of households and the number of mail delivery days and got the answer, which is 6.3.
- In 5 Days We Produce Enough Junk Mail to Reach the Moon. I took the width of a business envelope (8-7/8 inches) and multiplied by the number of junk mail pieces and divided by the number of inches to the moon, and saw that we could reach the moon 61 times per year with our junk mail. If you divide the number of mail delivery days by 61, you get 5, which means every 5 days we could reach the moon again with our junk mail.
- Junk Mail Produces 1 Billion Pounds of Landfill Each Year. If you take the 2.6 million trees killed each year and convert that into pounds of paper, you get roughly 2 billion pounds. Even if you assume half of that is recycled (I saw an estimate of 45% on Wikipedia) you still have 1 billion pounds of paper going into landfills
- Junk Mail Weighs Almost Double the US Military's Tanks. Our junk mail weighs nearly twice as much as all the US tanks in the world, combined. If you take the average US tank at a weight of 67 tons (a ton is 2,000 pounds) and divide the total weight of paper from junk mail by that number, you find that junk mail produced each year weighs the same as over 15,000 tanks. According to Wikipedia, the US military has about 8,000 tanks. By the way, a tank weighs about 40 times more than a standard car.
How to Reverse the Environmental Damage from Junk Mail
Link to this article using the link anchor text "stop outbound marketing" and email your friends to do the same thing. Leave a comment below so that everyone can publicly see how many trees we will plant. Don't have a blog or website? Start one! Or just leave a comment below showing your support and we'll count that too.
Are you a marketer who wants to produce less junk mail?
Find out how inbound marketing can help you waste less of your marketing budget on harmful junk mail. Generate higher quality leads at a lower cost using search engines, blogging and social media - download these Internet marketing webinars to learn more about how to get started.
Note: We're doing this program in cooperation with the Arbor Day Foundation.
Inbound Marketing Blog Feed
Doug Sauerhaft 9:15 AM on April 21, 2008
Are you really doing this in association with the Arbor Day Foundation? The same Arbor Day Foundation that mails millions of piece of "junk" mail a year?
I've worked directly and in-directly with the Arbor Day Foundation for over 20 years. In that time they have probable sent more than 200 million pieces of mail--and most likely closer to double that when you include all the other paper correspondence they send out.
I'm all for preserving the environment and the responsible use of resources.
And I'm also for targeting messages so they are being best sent to interested parties...
Two thumbs down for "piling on" journalism.
Diane Fay 9:25 AM on April 21, 2008
Great idea ... the junk mail is something that we all need to make an effort to control.
The catalogchoice.org has helped save a lot of trees.
Thank you for the well researched artical! Diane
Anonymous 10:12 AM on April 21, 2008
@Doug - Yup the same one. I don't expect the entire world to stop all junk mail overnight - including the Arbor Day Foundation, or HubSpot or anyone else. But I do think that this week is a great time to put into perspective the vast amount of resources we marketers consume -- all in a quest for a 2-4% average response rate (which when you really think about it sort of means that 96% of junk mail is wasted).
neelkanth 10:31 AM on April 21, 2008
Fantastic. The statistics so given is a great eye opener on environmental problems.Wish this grand mission to succeed.
Katie Farrar 10:38 AM on April 21, 2008
Great article Mike! It will be interesting to see how many people link to this article. I am going to add a link on my blog and hope a lot of other people do the same so the Arbor Day Foundation can help us plant a bunch of trees!
Matthew Palis 10:45 AM on April 21, 2008
Very interesting statistics.. scarey the amount of waste we produce.. I am almost paperless these days only buying a few reams of paper a year. Long live the Internet and digital storage!
Dan Elliott 11:03 AM on April 21, 2008
Aren't most of the trees used to create paper grown specifically to make paper? That is, isn't it a renewable resource? I don't think most (if any) of the lumber and paper mills make use of un-ethical practices such as butchering old growth forests to produce copy paper.
Helen 12:27 PM on April 21, 2008
From "the green book" I found some websites where you can stop junk mail from coming to you. Check out www.stopjunkmail.org and www.dmachoice.org.
Great article Mike!
trish bertuzzi 12:41 PM on April 21, 2008
If you join www.greendimes.com now they will either send you $1, plant a tree or send you a trial subscription to Plenty (a green magazine). Plus, you get to put an end to your junkmail! They offer free services as well as paid for.
Erin Colbert 5:39 PM on April 21, 2008
I think this is a great idea. Our company is actually hosting some fun earth day events tomorrow. We're offering free e-waste recycling and also pre-printing letters for various email marketing companies so employees can opt-out of junk mail. ProQuo.com is a great website where you can manage your junk mail and this gave me the idea to have the company mail the letters for everyone tomorrow.
Rachele DiTullio 7:10 PM on April 21, 2008
Tell all those companies sending you junk catalogs to stop! This site is awesome and has already assisted in getting almost all my catalog deliveries halted.
http://www.catalogchoice.org/
Ben 5:49 AM on April 22, 2008
In support of Dan Elliott's query, yes most junk mail probably is printed on paper made from sustainable sources. Certainly in the UK it's difficult to find a printer who doesn't use paper from sustainable sources these days. This doesn't detract from the larger message though. One thing I would recommend is if you are sending out marketing mail, make sure it is 100% paper (no plastic address windows etc.) as this makes it a lot easier for the recipient to have it recycled once they are done with it. Same goes for any mail - invoices etc.
lucy 1:32 PM on April 23, 2008
Great post. Don't forget phone books. Those are insanely wasteful. I had to call three different companies and wait on hold to cancel them.
Bill 12:41 AM on April 24, 2008
Astounding stats! I am definately going to look for ways to print less and go electronic. I want to preserve that tree you plant for me! Thanks for the eye-opening info!
Odd Human 10:30 AM on April 30, 2008
I took the average time that it would take to work out all of those averages and came up with a completely imaginary number, which I shall, henceforth, claim is a real statistic.
26.3 minutes.
Please link to my statistic, which is a lame attempt at link bait.
Averages don't mean a thing - especially when they are based on a total guestimate of what the average size of a direct mail piece is, based on a regular envelope.
The 'average American' has one breast and one testicle.
ruthrbns 9:12 AM on May 11, 2008
Hi,Your post seems to be a good the junk mail must be controlled
Tom 6:24 AM on May 25, 2008
Very interesting article! Certainly, printing less and going "green" & electronic is better off.
rodney 7:24 PM on May 28, 2008
In response to Doug that we do this for a 2-4% response rate and then 96% is junk however you left off off many factors such as what the 2-4% response rate represents in terms of revenue and profits - if I spend $1000 and get a return of $10000, (of which we do) and the lifetime customer value of those 2-4% is actually about $20K-30K, wouldn't that be a great investment? Yes, outbound is dying a slow death however there are many cases and markets where it is a piece of an overall plan as you well know. There are many ways to save trees such as stop all political direct mailings - have you seen the garbage they send out asking for money - I usually send it back and ask for my tax money back. Also, if you dont want it -pile it up and take it to the post office or mail it back to the sender.
Doug Sauerhaft 7:47 PM on May 28, 2008
Uh Rodney, perhaps you might read your "threads" more carefully in the future.
You're responding to a response TO ME. Not FROM ME...oh well...it happens.
Nothing but love Rodney. Nothing but Love!
:-)
rodney 7:53 PM on May 28, 2008
my apologies - read to quickly - seeing you are in the Direct Mail business you see my side, I guess. question - do you deal in Prenatal lists from sources other than Experian by chance?
Melody- Generous Marketing 4:34 PM on November 12, 2008
Would be nice if there was a way to target only those that are interested. I for one don't mind a piece of advertising when it is something I am interested in and that offers a legitimate way to save money. For example, when I moved I went looking for ads/coupons in the mail to help me set up the house with things I needed. There's something to say for opt in lists out there that enable marketers to make sincere offers to folks that want it/need it.