App Helps De-Clutter Your Mailbox Of Junk Mail
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Is your mailbox cluttered with catalogs and credit card offers?
Well, if you feel like you are drowning in junk mail, there is hope.
KDKA Consumer Editor Susan Koeppen reports there are 262.4 million pieces of direct mail delivered by the United States Postal Service each day.
It generates a yearly revenue of $16 billion for the USPS.
But, many consumers say they don't like getting direct mail and toss it in the trash.
The Environmental Protection Agency says half of all advertising mail is thrown out.
Koeppen met up with consumers Amy Blyth Whipkey and her husband, David. They say they have been bombarded with junk mail ever since they bought a home.
"We get so much junk mail - it's ridiculous," says Blyth Whipkey.
The Whipkeys now shred all of the direct mail they receive, but they also discovered an app that offers to help de-clutter your mailbox.
It's called Paper Karma.
Here's how it works: you take a picture with your smartphone of the mail you don't want, and the app contacts the company to take you off the mailing list.
"As soon as you're unsubscribed, it turns green and it will say it was a success," says Blyth Whipkey.
The Direct Marketing Association says you can also go to www.dmachoice.org to opt out of getting advertising mail.
Roughly 10,000 to 15,000 people sign up each month to have their direct mail reduced on www.dmachoice.org.
"The success rate is about an 80 percent reduction in marketing mailed offers," says Senny Boone, with the Direct Marketing Association.
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