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Here are some ideas which will Save You Money and Help Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions:

 

More than 8 million tons of trees are used to produce the 19 billion catalogs printed each year, requiring enough energy to power 1.2 million homes for a year and producing as many emissions as 2 million cars.  As for junk mail, the average adult is on at least 50 mailing lists and receives 40 pounds of junk mail a year-nearly half of which ends up in landfills unopened.  Cut down on junk mail by calling 888-5OPTOUT or visit www.optoutprescreen.com.  And cancel your catalog subscriptions by going to www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglist.

Also, get off the mailing list at the 5 big Junk Mail Distributors!!!  Cut and paste actual mailing labels onto a sheet, make 4 copies, add your signature beside each name variation on each sheet, and send them off to each of the 5 addresses below. Indicate the following: "Please remove my name and address from your mailing lists and do not rent, sell or trade my name or address."

R.L. Polk & Company
Name Deletions, List Compilation Dept.
6400 Monroe Blvd
Taylor, MI 48180-1814
1-800-873-7655
By recording your name and address on their automated system, you are requesting that the consumer credit reporting agency Equifax not share your information with other parties.

Val-Pak Direct Marketing Systems
8605 Largo Lakes Drive
Largo, FL 33773
1- 888-797-1896
www.valpak.com
Click on "contact us" and then "mailing list." You can request to be removed from sweepstakes and ValPak coupon mailings. If you like coupons but don’t want to receive all that mail, go to their website to choose and print coupons by geographical location.

Valassis Direct Mail, Inc.
Consumer Assistance
PO Box 249
Windsor , CT 06095
1- 888-241-6760
http://www.advo.com/consumersupport.html
You can request removal online at the above website, by phone, or by downloading a form to mail. ADVO sends out the “Mailbox Values” advertising pieces.

Opt Out  -  InfoUSA
Attn: Consumer Requests
1020 E. 1st St.
Papillion, NE 68046
888-633-4402
Send a letter with all the variations of your name and address asking to suppress your name from their lists. They are a large provider of marketing lists.

Epsilon Data Services
Abacus Cooperative Databases
P.O. Box 1478
Broomfield, CO 80038
303-410-5100
abacusoptout@epsilon.com
Send an email with “remove” in the subject line and your full name, including middle initial, and address in the message. If you changed your address over the past six months, include your previous address as well.  Abacus compiles statistical information that is sold to catalog companies.

Receiving Invoices and Statements via the Internet saves tons of paper and transportation.  Paying your bills online saves you a stamp (which seem to cost more every 2 or 3 months) and, again, saves paper and transportation.  Use E-Mail!  It’s faster, cheaper, and more eco friendly than snail mail.  There are secure information storage services on the internet that keep everything online so that you don't need paper versions and can access them from any computer or portable device.

Bottled Water – An easy way to fill up our Landfills!

Americans consume more than three million bottles of water each hour.  96% of water bottles sold in 2007 were in single-size containers, which have a lower recycling rate than nearly any other form of plastic packaging.   By eliminating 1 bottle of water per day, people will save $500 per year and help reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills and waterways.  Americans currently spend $15 billion a year on bottled water.  The amount of oil required to make those plastic bottles is the same required to run 100,000 cars for a year!  Water filters and reusable water bottles eliminate the need to purchase bottled water. 

In an average year, U.S. households use about One Billion plastic bags.  99% of these bags are never recycled!  Stash some canvas bags in your car.  It would be convenient and Eco-Friendly to take your own Canvas Bag into any store where you plan on buying items that would normally be bagged.

The Facts:  If every American household purchased one package of 100% recycled napkins, we would save 1 million trees!  Buy Recycled Paper Products! 
Another way to reduce your waste output is to invest in some reusable items and to find new uses for objects that would otherwise be destined for the trash – Use your imagination!  Also adding organic food scraps (such as banana peels, eggshells and coffee grounds) to a composting bin results in an economic, nutrient-rich topping for garden beds.  Buying dry foods in bulk and then transferring them to reusable containers greatly cut down on wasteful packaging.  Investing in a set of rechargeable batteries will save you money and help the environment by reducing the amount of “one time use” items filling up our landfills.

Buy it in BULK!
Save up to one-third on your grocery bill by shopping in bulk while reducing the 80 million tons of packaging that ends up in landfills each year.  Now, buying in bulk doesn't mean buying large quantities of things you don't need simply because you couldn't resist the bargain, or buying a container of something so large that half of it goes bad before you can use it!  Buying in bulk does mean buying the largest size of products you were going to buy anyway both to save money (items typically cost significantly less by weight when purchased in bulk v. single-size/small packages) and to reduce your consumption of packaging and containers, which make up more than 31 percent of all municipal solid waste.

"Eat Locally" means simply to buy food from your local farmers market or food grown in your area whenever possible.  This is one of the most direct ways to reduce your carbon footprint.  By eating food grown in your area, you save energy and fuel.  Typical grocery store produce travels 1,500 miles before ending up on your plate.  You get the freshest food possible and support your local community & economy by buying local!  It’s also better to buy fresh food at the grocery store instead of frozen.  Frozen food uses 10 times more energy to produce.  And added benefit is that many local farms are organic, which means no pesticides are used for growing.  For the real enthusiast, grow your own fruits and vegetables.  Plant a fruit tree… it will provide you with lots of fruit, and will breathe in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - making growing your own fruit effectively carbon negative!  Visit www.localharvest.org to find a local farm/farmer's market in your area.

Take your Lunch to Work!  Americans spend over $134 billion each year on fast food.  It’s not cheap; It’s not healthy; And takeout food packaging creates 1.8 million tons of trash in the U.S. each year!  If you spend $9 a day on a chicken sandwich and soda, that's $45 a week, or $2,250 every year.  If you instead saved that amount and invested it, in 20 years you'd have more than $111,000!