We built this because nobody else did.

Last reviewed: March 2026

Every year, the average American household receives 41 pounds of junk mail. Most of it goes straight to the landfill -- unopened, unread, and completely unwanted.

The tools to stop it exist. OptOutPrescreen, DMAchoice, CatalogChoice -- they're free, federally backed, and genuinely effective. But they're scattered across different websites, require different accounts, and come with zero guidance on what to do first or why it matters.

HowToStopJunkMail.org exists to fix that.

Who we are

DS
Founder
Damien Schuster
Privacy advocate & tool builder · Austin, TX
After spending an embarrassing amount of time trying to stop the same credit card offers from arriving every week, Damien built the tools he wished had existed -- a single place where anyone could walk through the opt-out process in under 10 minutes, for free, without creating an account. What started as a personal frustration became a full resource: free guides, opt-out tools, a mailer directory covering 50+ companies, and a carbon footprint calculator that shows exactly how much waste your junk mail generates every year.

What we believe

Junk mail isn't just annoying. It costs American households $370 million annually in disposal fees. It accounts for 44% of landfill-bound paper waste. It's a primary vector for identity theft. And the opt-out mechanisms to stop it -- built into federal law -- are genuinely effective but chronically underused.

We think that's a fixable problem. So we built the tools to fix it.

Editorial standards

Primary sources only

Every stat on this site is cited from primary sources -- EPA data, FTC guidance, Sierra Club research, USPS documentation, and peer-reviewed studies. No guesswork.

Affiliate disclosure

Some guides contain affiliate links to Incogni and DeleteMe. These are disclosed on every page where they appear. Commission never influences what we recommend.

No data sold

Tool inputs stay in your browser. We do not transmit, store, or sell user data. Paid service data is deleted after fulfillment.

Independence

We are not affiliated with any government agency, credit bureau, data broker, or mailer. No payment for editorial coverage. Ever.

Research & collaboration

Coming: university partnerships

We are actively developing partnerships with university researchers and environmental science programs to bring independent, peer-reviewed data to our tools and guides. If you're a researcher or professor working in privacy, environmental impact, or consumer advocacy, we'd love to talk.

Get in touch →
HowToStopJunkMail.org is an independent public resource. Not affiliated with OptOutPrescreen.com, any credit bureau, government agency, or data broker.