How to stop junk mail

Time to liberate yourself from waves of paper junk mail. Sure, you recycle, but who wants to lug what you never asked for in the first place?

A free and easy way to do this is Catalog Choice. You search for participating catalog companies and check off the ones you want to oust from your mailbox. It's quite a comprehensive list, includind many familiar green-minded as well as conventional companies.

It takes up to 3 months to take effect, but at least you'll know that it's gonna end.

Also free: Call companies whose mailings you don't want. Use the toll-free customer service phone number in the catalog. After all, you can always shop online or by phone, and save on gasoline and greenhouse gases released out of the tailgate of your car.

Take yourself off junk mail lists by using the Direct Mail Association's DMAchoice.org service. It costs but $1. .tomcat2

Or, subscribe to Mail Stopper Tonic (formerly Green Dimes ). For $20 a year, they'll declutter your mailbox and plant five trees on your behalf.

See the New American Dream's Junk the Junk Mail campaign.

For more info, click here.