On Dewees Island, we are always looking for ways to reduce waste. All of our paper recycling has to be transported off the island by boat, so here’s another cool carbon footprint idea.  I have been trying to cut down on the number of catalogues we receive, but it’s hard to remember whether I have called the companies, or emailed, or just put them in a pile to take care of later.  I am still getting catalogs from baby clothiers… and I am almost the shortest one in the household.  (Give it a few weeks…)

Along comes an iphone/ipad2 app called paperkarma.  (It is currently FREE!) You register with them, and whenever a catalog arrives in your mailbox, you use the app to take a photo of the cover… then they do the rest.  They contact the company, explain that you want to be removed from the list, and send you an email that tells you they have taken care of things.  It’s like having a pet robot mail-sorter. It works with iphone, ipad2, android and windows phones.

So I gave it a try. I downloaded the app, registered my address, and got started taking photos. I have to say, so far this app does exactly what it says it will. I got confirmation that they had unenrolled me. This is what their website says:

In the United States alone, 100 billion pieces of junk mail are sent each year. Every household receives some 800 pieces of junk mail per year, and the ratio of wanted to unwanted mail has reached 1 to 18! Government data shows that we’ll spend months of our lives dealing with this problem. The vast majority of that mail goes unopened, with much of it ending up in landfills. All this manufacturing, delivery, and disposal of wasted paper has a dramatically negative effect on our environment.

Let’s work together to stop this madness!

There are many things you can do yourself to get rid of junk mail. You can contact the senders directly and request to be removed from their lists, or use an existing service to manage junk mail.

Our novel approach makes the process easier, faster, and more fun: Using PaperKarma on your smartphone, snap a picture of the unwanted mail and send it to us. Now your problem is ours. We’ll identify the sender, locate them, and submit your request.

PaperKarma has been beta tested for several months, and we’re happy to report excellent cooperation from companies – honoring these requests is required by law. Our own piles of junkmail have shrunk dramatically during the trial.

I’m in!