Earth Day is Friday, April 22 – we’re featuring a green tip of the day from April 1-22.

Tip #18: In your daily endeavors to create less waste, if you’re still receiving junk mail, take a few minutes to curb the amount of unwanted mail either you or member of your family (ie: mom & dad) may receive. Even though some of that material may be printed on recycled paper, efforts to deal with that stuff still results in a lot of wasted time and energy as well as transportation resources just to haul that stuff to and from your home or office.

• Curb it at the source by signing up for a free service such as Catalog Choice. They’ll help you stop the unending flow of unwanted catalogs, coupons, credit offers, phone books, fliers and other unsolicited material – which will result in saving electricity, trees, water and other valuable resources. You can also opt to sign up for their premium service for a fee or make a donation to help them operate efficiently.
• Check out Precycle with Tonic – they offer 2 levels of service, take your pick of $10 or $20 one-time fees.
• 41 Pounds for a fee of $41, they’ll eliminate 85% of junk mail for you and your family members for a 5-year period.
• DoNotMail.org – for the activist in you.

With less than 10% of Earth’s old growth forests intact, countless waterways polluted with toxins from paper mills, and looming landfills consisting of 40% paper — every little step in the right direction adds up — help to reduce land, air and water pollution while also saving tons of energy and water.

Related: our series of green tips of the day.