Businesses spend about $225 per person in the United States on direct-mail advertising a year. The typical American receives about 41 pounds of junk mail per year. The Sierra Club estimates 80 to 100 million trees are cut down each yer to print junk mail. So, set out to clear your mailbox.

Stop credit card and insurance offers: Never want to see another prescreened credit or insurance offer in the mail? Such solicitations can put you at risk for fraud — but you can opt out. The 1996 Fair Credit Reporting Act led to the creation of OptOutPrescreen.com. The website allows you to opt out for five years online or by calling 888-567-8688. To stop offers forever, you’ll need to sign and return the Permanent Opt-Out Election form. The entire process takes a few weeks to complete, but it only took a few minutes to fill out the form.

Stop most advertisements: Check out the Association of National Advertisers’ DMAchoice.org. This service lets you stop delivery of catalogues, magazine offers and other junk items from charities, banks and national brands. DMAchoice says this will stop 80 percent of promotional offers since marketers would rather contact people willing to receive their mail. You can register online for $4, or by mail for $5, to stop deliveries for 10 years.

CatalogChoice.org is a nonprofit organization that has a list of 10,000 businesses and charities. It lets you automatically send an opt-out request to specific companies. Just search the website’s pre-populated company list, and a seamless click of the mouse sends a request on your behalf. Best of all, it’s free.

Do you have Personal Green Choices to share with all of us? I will collect them for future segments. Email Marilyn Flick at flick7956@msn.com.