About
Us.
My Story.
When I was in 8th grade, I noticed that the recycling bin at my local post office was always full of catalogs. I watched people get the mail out of their mailboxes and put the unwanted catalogs directly into the recycling bin, without even looking at them! After talking to my family, I found out that people can unsubscribe themselves from unwanted catalogs but I tried it and it’s actually pretty hard and confusing. I soon realized, companies don’t actually want customers to unsubscribe as it may mean less business therefore, they make it as difficult as possible. So, I saw an opportunity to help my community and help the environment. I would manually unsubscribe people from their unwanted catalogs!
I started with a pilot group of my immediate neighbors using an email to reach them and let them know about my idea. The pilot went great and I decided to increase my reach by advertising through the school newsletter and through a poster at the post office. The response was immediate and enthusiastic! Over the initial 6 months, I was able to help over a hundred families and businesses clean up their mailboxes and lighten the load on the recycling bin.
My Impact.
I realized, after running this project for a while that there might be a lot of other middle schoolers around the country who might be interested in starting something like this in their own communities. It really only takes time and an internet connection to be a part of something that actually has an impact on the world that young people are soon to inherit. That is when Stopthejunk.org was born! My focus has turned to empowering other young people to have an impact!