It seems everyone receives junk mail, both at home and work. In some cases junk mail can be useful and informative. However, experts say more than 50 percent of junk mail is discarded into a landfill rather than recycled. This represents more than three million tons of paper wasted annually in the U.S. It’s estimated that 96 million trees are destroyed each year in the U. S. to produce unsolicited mail.

You can fight back and reduce junk mail waste by following these tips:

• Take your name off mailing lists. Create and send a form letter asking organizations that send unwanted mail to remove you from their mailing lists. There is also a free service called the "National Do Not Mail List" (DirectMail.com) that allows a person to remove their name from mailing lists. Although there is no guarantee that your name will be removed from all lists, it is an easy way to make your preferences known.

• For those items you continue to receive, recycle. Almost all junk mail can be recycled as mixed paper. Mixed paper includes envelopes (including windows), index cards, colored paper, newspaper, magazines, catalogues, post-it notes and more. These items can be whole or shredded.

If the paper is white it can be collected separately and recycled as white paper, with a higher recycling value. White paper includes printer and copier paper, including paper printed with information in any colors of ink.

At Fort Polk all paper, white and mixed, can be taken to the Qualified Recycling Program recycling center Tuesdays from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The QRP is located in bldg 1455 off Ninth Street.

For more information about recycling call 531-7556.