Green Options

Conservationists have long been uncomfortable with the environmental impact of the mountains of catalogs, credit card offers, coupons, and other direct mailings that accumulate daily in their mailbox, or on the floor near the front door.

Sure, we can recycle all that junk mail, but that process creates an additional layer of energy inputs from collection, sorting, processing and repurposing, to say nothing of the energy and resources needed to make the mail in the first place. Fortunately—in the United States at least—there are several new services that allow people to take back their mailboxes by blocking catalogs and other junk mail from being delivered.

But when it comes to junk mail in your email inbox, even the best “spam” filters will let a few slip by on occasion. But not everyone uses a spam filter and the environmental impact of all that virtual junk mail is now rivaling that of its papery cousin, according to a new study by McAfee (pdf).

I got an email this morning and it appears that it’s my lucky day, Not only have I won the UK lottery but a barrister in South Africa has a client with an enormous estate who has left me millions. This makes total sense to me being that the deceased gentleman had no living relatives, so it seems perfectly natural that I would be next in line to inherit his money. I also found out this morning that a company called FedEX Couriers has a package that they’ve been trying to deliver to me. I suspect that this box might also contain cash.

These things are funny and relatively easy to delete from my in-box but there’s still some sort of energy I have to exert to do so. A few spam emails are fine—but hundreds can seem exhausting, even though it’s more mentally exhausting than physically so. Still, even though I know it’s junk mail, I must have a vitamin deficiency because I actually read some of them and get my hopes up. I know it’s crazy but I seriously do get a little excited. My gullability is lessening somewhat having read dozens but I still fall for it for a split second. I know what you’re thinking: I am a chump. And I admit it—it’s pathetic! But then I think, who knows, maybe there is a package of cash waiting for me. It could happen. Couldn’t it?