By Kenneth Barbalace

Junk mail clogs our mailboxes, fills up our trash/recycle bins, wastes our natural resources and in the case of credit card applications, opens us up to the potential for identity theft. For years people have had to suffer this unwanted plague infesting our mail boxes, because the effort required to get off of these mailing lists was just too great.

A couple of months ago I learned of a service called GreenDimes that will fill out the contact bulk mail, catalog and credit card companies on my behalf and fill out the forms necessary to get these companies to stop sending our household unsolicited mail (e.g. credit card applications). In addition, with every subscription purchased, GreenDimes plants trees through their tree planting partners to help off set some of the trees that get killed by junk mail companies.

Yes, I know I could do much of this myself, but they have the process automated, which saves me considerable time, effort and frustration. For me this time savings was well worth the subscription cost. Obviously, the stopping of junk mail isn't an overnight event, but over the past couple of months, the flow of junk mail our postal carrier delivers to us has significantly slowed. There is, however, still one "shared mail" company that is sending us those weekly mailing circulars, in spite of the fact that I contacted them directly myself and asked them to stop sending us their crap.

When I signed up for GreenDimes they were charging a $39 annual subscription fee, however, in my email this morning I saw an announcement from them that they are changing the fee to a one time $15 fee making it a much more attractive service.

We should not, however, need to pay some third party to facilitate the stopping of junk mail, nor rely on companies' voluntarily honoring "do not mail" requests. Just like there is a National Do Not Call Registry here in the United States that companies must subscribe to and honor if they are going to make telemarketing calls, there needs to be a "national do not mail" registry that companies must subscribe to and cull their mailing lists against prior to sending out bulk mail mailings. To facilitate a grassroots effort to lobby Congress to create just such a "national do no mail registry," GreenDimes has now started an online petition.

To be sure, there are some very powerful corporate interests that would not want to see such a list mandated, and to be sure they will throw lots of lobbying money at defeating any efforts to create a "national do not mail registry," however, a precedent was set with the National Do Not Call Registry and a solid grassroots effort to lobby for such a list could prevail in the end. Freedom of speech isn't just the right to broadcast one's message to others; it is also the right to be free of unwanted intrusions. Just like we have the right to opt out of telemarketers calling us via a national registry, we should also have the right to opt out of junk mail solicitations via a national registry. Such a registry is also the right thing to do to help conserve our natural resources and reduce the waste that goes into landfills or has to be recycled. Just think how many trees would be spared and how much water saved if those of us who do not want to receive junk mail could easily opt out from receiving it.

By Kenneth Barbalace

What will be done with the debris of the information age? The European Union (EU) member states are taking action and holding manufacturers responsible for the hazardous materials in their products. While these regulations are focused on electronic goods sold in the EU, they will also impact goods sold here in the U.S. and rest of the world as in many instances it is easier and cheaper to manufacture all products to be compliant with RoHS requirements than to produce multiple versions of the same product (an RoHS compliant version for Europe and a non-RoHS compliant version for everywhere else in the world). In the end this means that all consumers are benefiting from RoHS as more of the electronic products they buy will contain the toxic chemicals that make proper disposal and recycling so hard.

Read more about the EU's RoHS in our latest article by Jennifer Manning: RoHS: Europe's Initiative to Control Technological Waste

By Kenneth Barbalace

Apple can be secretive to an extreme and when Greenpeace questioned major electronics companies about their environmental initiatives, Apple's secretiveness included what measures they are taking and have taken to remove hazardous chemicals from their manufacturing processes and products. It was a classic "we don't need to tell you" attitude. While the other companies were tripping over each other to gain better rankings on Greenpeace's reports, Apple computers gave Greenpeace the cold shoulder. As a result of not being completely forthcoming with their environmental practices, Greenpeace ranked Apple dead last out of fourteen leading computer companies in their April 3, 2007 report. The Apple fans at Greenpeace seemed almost despondent in their write up about Apple's failings.

Well, apparently that report and subsequent bad PR really stung Apple's pride and Apple cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs has come out fighting with a five page letter. Steve goes into great detail as to what Apple has been doing to eliminate hazardous chemicals from their products and manufacturing processes as well as what measures they are taking to recycle more of their consumer goods that have reached the end of their product life. At the same time Steve takes decidedly hostile stabs at Apple's competitors, discounting the environmental initiatives of those competitors.

It is very good to see that Apple's poor grade in Greenpeace's report was simply due to a failure on Apple's part to be completely candid as to what initiatives they are taking. At the same time, however, Steve Jobs' bitterness and stabs at other computer companies do not reflect well on him or Apple. It is not Greenpeace's fault that Apple came in last in Greenpeace's report. It is Apple's fault for having a culture of secrecy and failing to be completely transparent in matters of what they are doing to be an environmentally responsible company. Steve Job's apology at the end of his letter would have been more convincing had he just sucked it up and focused on Apple without trash talking its competitors.

By Kenneth Barbalace

Where do recyclable plastics go? If a plastic makes it into the recycling loop, it will go through many processes before it emerges as a recycled product. Read full article: Plastics - From Recycling Bin to New Product

By Kenneth Barbalace

Just like anything else, the recycled paper you buy may not always be what it seems. There is a lot of marketing hype out there that tries to blur the lines between different types of paper and what recycled paper is to try and make some papers look "greener" than they really are. This article is intended to help arm the consumer with knowledge so that they can become a more informed consumer.