Each U.S. household receives about 850 pieces of unwanted mail annually, which is a direct result of consumer targeting. This adds up to more than 100 billion pieces of mail in the country, and 44 percent goes directly to the landfill unopened. So how do you stop the madness? You could call every company that sends you junk mail or you could download the free app PaperKarma. Just take a photo of the address label and voila, you will be unsubscribed. It not only settles the issue of unsolicited contact from companies, but it also reduces the size of your ecological footprint.
Environmentalists, professional organizers, and tech geeks alike are giving PaperKarma a Namaste bow. PaperKarma was developed by Seattle software developers Sean Mortazai (now at Microsoft) and Brendan Ribera now at Reputation.com, the online privacy company that bought PaperKarma in 2013. The technology complements Reputation’s efforts to help clients remove personally identifiable information, such as names, addresses, and incomes, from appearing online.
