The average person receives 560 pieces of unwanted and unsolicited mail a year but there is good news. You can eliminate up to 90 percent of that.

It is not just an inconvenience. There are more than 100 million trees cut down and ground up annually to produce all the nation's junk mail, according to Native Forest Network, an environmental group.

To start reducing your annual mountain of junk mail try these approaches:

• Most importantly, start with contacting the Direct Marketing Association. This alone can reduce your unwanted mail by 75 percent. Fill out the online form or the mail-in registration form. Both have a $1 fee.

• To stop unwanted credit card solicitations you can fill out a secure form. You can also call 888.5OPTOUT (888.567.8688).

• Getting off the major mailing list providers’ databases — These companies compile information about U.S. consumers then resell it. You need to include your name and all its derivations and spellings, along with your complete address including zip code, when asking to be removed from any list or database.

Abacus

Donnelley Marketing
Database Operations
416 South Bell Avenue
Ames, IA 50010

• “Occupant” mailings — A substantial portion of your annual mail comes addressed simply to ‘occupant’ or ‘resident’. But you can stop this too. Several companies are responsible for millions of mailings each year.

ADVO

Cox Target Media - ValPak

• Privacy Notices — This is the brochure with very small type that you receive once a year from credit card companies, banks, brokerage companies and other service providers describing how they use your personal information and possibly sell it to other companies. Read the fine print near the end about where to call or write them to limit the use of your address.

There are some things you may have done that have contributed to the junk mail you receive. • Stop filling out warranty cards, which are not necessary to activate a product warranty. • Ignore sweepstakes forms — they are mostly marketing tools to get you on multiple mailing lists. • When you donate to a charity ask them not to share or sell your name and to limit their solicitations to once a year. • When moving, individually notify all service providers, credit card companies, subscriptions and others you want to have your new address. Do not fill out a postal service change of address form because they will sell your new address to any company or list broker willing to pay.

• Electronic Bills and Statements — After you have cut out most of your junk mail you can also reduce the paper from your wanted mail. Choose online bills and statements rather than bulky paper statements that you will be tempted to fill a file cabinet with. Most utilities, credit card companies, banks, brokerage companies will send you an e-mail notifying when you can log onto your account to view your bill. Do not be lured to print it out. Just review it on screen, then save it as a .pdf file to your hard drive. Be sure you are backing up to a safe location.

• Catalog and Online Purchases — Ask the company not to sell or share your name and address. You can also request that they limit the number of catalogs and promotional materials that they send to you. For those paper catalogs that you no longer wish to receive Catalog Choice is a free service that lets you decline them.

• Magazines, Journals, Newspapers and other periodicals — Consider receiving subscriptions online instead of print form. When that is not possible or practical notify each company to keep your name strictly on their in-house list. You can even call those free weekly newspapers and tell them to stop delivery.

Remember to recycle any unwanted mail you receive and do not forget to first shred any personal or sensitive information, such as account numbers. According to the Center for a New American Dream, a Maryland-based nonprofit organization, 5.6 million tons of junk mail end up in U.S. landfills annually. Only 22 percent is recycled.

Many lists and mailings are prepared several weeks in advance so it may take 3 months before you see a dramatic drop in the unwanted mail you receive.