Photo: Pau Casals | Unsplash
Amsterdam's approach to junk mail is catching on. Since 2018, people in the Dutch city must choose to get such advertising flyers by putting a "ja-ja" sticker on their mailbox. Only 23% have said yes, and the city is saving 6,000 tons of paper and 700 trash runs per year. Now France is drafting legislation and the new German government is looking favorably on the opt-in model, which could save 535,000 tons of CO2, 42 billion liters of water, 4.3 billion kilowatt hours of energy, and 1.6 million tons of wood. German marketers claim 94% of recipients read their junk mail, but waste management experts say 85 to 90% ends up in the trash unread. Organizers of a petition signed by more than 100,000 Germans say the opt in system would let people still get ads if they wanted them.
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