41pounds.org

1. 41pounds.org298 W. SaratogaFerndale, MI 48220 41 Pounds

2. What is 41 Pounds? 41pounds.org is a nonprofit organization working to eliminate a big personal nuisance and environmental hazard — junk mail. Our name comes from the amount of junk mail the average person receives each year (credit card applications, catalogs, coupon books, etc.) which for the most part goes directly into the trash can or recycling bin. Even with recycling programs all over the country, the majority of household waste is junk mail, and paper takes up about 40% of landfill space!

3. Our Mission Keep trees in the forest. More than 100 million trees are destroyed each year to produce junk mail. 42% of timber harvested nationwide becomes pulpwood for paper. Save water. About 28 billion gallons of water are wasted to produce and recycle junk each year. Save time. You waste about 70 hours a year dealing with junk mail.

4. What do you get out of it? When you sign up, we contact 20 to 30 direct mail companies on your behalf to stop the majority of bulk mail that comes to your home every day. All you have to do is type in your contact info — then leave the rest to us. We contact the direct mail companies and get you off their lists! We also send you some pre-addressed postcards for you to send to the companies that require a signature from you. The service lasts for five years and costs just participants $41. That’s only $8.20 a year or about 70 cents a month. You can contact us any time with additional household names to protect or more direct mail companies to block. for each person who signs up for our service, we donate more than 1/3 of our fee to community and environmental organizations. These organizations plant trees, protect watersheds and strengthen our communities.

5. What's our Process? When participants register, we simply ask for little more than contact info and use it to call add distributors and bulk mail companies to take you off their list we also help fund small community organizations that help with wildlife and park preservation

6. What's the Groundwork needed? Almost none! All that’s required to run is support to extend our call center (which contacts bulk mail distributors) and the overhead for the facilityas many people throw away junk mail without even glancing over it Why its efficient: prevent resources from being needlessly wasted save the time and energy of many other companies and individuals in the middle from the mail couriers load to the individuals time Reduce space used in the landfill all of this can be reduced with the removal of junk mail

7. Immediate effects/goals Reduction in junk mail to individuals Funding for urban landscaping and renewal while also protecting and adding to parks and other outdoor recreation areas

8. Long term effects/goals Reduction of paper and other resources used by ad companies that are wasted on uninterested individuals Less “floating trash” around cities and towns

9. Our Goal: a critical call to action It is everyone's responsibility to reduce needless usage of resources where they can- whether it be turning off the lights when not in a room or deciding to walk down the street instead of drive. Our goal is to foster the ideas of reducing excess in individuals and reduce resources squandered and wasted by big printing and ad companies that go unread and unused by people who don’t want them. Our goal isn't to stamp out ads and mailers for everyone- just the people who don’t want them. 41 pounds lets people choose what they do want to receive in the mail, saving them time and printing companies resources, and reduces needless waste in landfills.

10. How can I help? Just by simply signing up, your already helping Part of small 41 dollar fee goes to other environmental non-profits, a list and description of which can be found here Donations can be made through e-mail at support@41pounds.org

11. Why One Economy? With your funding of many community development programs, I believe we can foster a vital synthesis in your support of not only the environment but distributing technology along with it in developing underprivileged communities and renewing not only the technological aspect, but also by working to remove harmful environmental aspects. By working at both ends towards the middle, I believe we can do a lot of good for many communities and help them prosper together.

12. You’ve got me interested, what should I do now? That’s a great question- take a moment to meditate on the impact you could have on the environment just by removing junk mail from your mailbox. Its simple, easy, and efficient. Rather than recycle when it comes, stop it at the source. 41 pounds of paper a year that is of no use to you, why would you want to carry 41 pounds of paper to the trash of recycling bin? You work hard, take a break, and let the 41 pounds organization do the work for you.

13. What's my connection? as a person that likes to go outdoors and explore, its important to me that clutter and trash remain away from these areas. Its always hard to see trash in the middle of nowhere- which is generally flyers and mailers that are at the mercy of the wind. By cutting down the amount of junk mail, the amount of lose junk mail picked up by the wind can be reduced. By doing this it also slows down the amount of space needed in landfills, space which could be used to extend city, county, state, and national parks to make them even bigger. As a guy who likes to get lost in these parks, its important to have plenty of space and the experience of hiking without all the trash lying about.