You open your mailbox and hope you get something good. Instead, it’s a pile of junk mail. Why companies keep adding you to their mailing lists and ignoring “Return to Sender” requests is anybody’s guess. But there’s a better way to utilize all that extra paper from unsolicited junk mail and even solicited packages that went way overboard on the packaging needs. Both options are the gift that keeps on giving — literally.
According to the University of Southern Indiana, the amount of discarded wood and paper within a year’s time can heat 50 million homes for 20 years. Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away each year in the U.S., and Americans use 85 million tons of paper annually (about 680 pounds per person). It probably wouldn’t be so bad if it was actually needed. But for far too often, we cannot figure out what to do with paper once its initial use is no longer an option.