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If saving the planet Earth were easy, we would have done it already. PaperKarma is a free app that will help us save the planet with the added benefit of reducing your junk mail.
If your mailbox is clogged with junk mail that goes straight into your recycle bin, you need PaperKarma. Perhaps you enjoyed receiving catalogs such as Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware and Home Decorator’s Collection when you were furnishing your new home but now you don’t need any more furniture. Or perhaps you eagerly flipped through baby catalogs such as Right Start and One Step Ahead in between diaper changes, but by now your youngest has braces on her teeth.
When I was young, single and living in Manhattan, before the days of online shopping, catalogs were a fantastic way to shop. My roommate, the editor of a fashion magazine, and I would spend hours going through catalogs finding fun and outrageous outfits. If I weren’t around, she would mark the catalogs with notes for me (NWJ = No Way Jose, TWLSGOY = This Would Look So Good On You), supremely adding style to my previously boring wardrobe. Catalogs then were fun and relevant.
Now with online shopping you may not want to receive any catalogs at all. Or perhaps you only want a few favorites. Chances are that you’re getting more catalogs than you want, as well as other junk mail. You can use PaperKarma to get you off of mailing lists for catalogs, as well as magazines, coupons, fliers, mailers, credit card offers and white/yellow page phone books. You get less clutter in your home, retailers aren’t sending out unwanted mail and the deforestation of the planet is delayed.
Sure, you could get off these mailing list by writing a letter, calling or sending an email, but PaperKarma makes it super easy for you. The first time you use the app you must register, which you can do by logging in with Facebook or creating an account. Open the app and take a picture of the offending mail. The key is to make sure the photo includes information about the sender. After you take the picture you are shown a Preview and are given the choice of using or retaking the photo. When you press Use, you are asked to confirm that you want to unsubscribe. Press “Send & Stop” and PaperKarma will do the rest.
The screen that pops up will congratulate you on your efforts to eliminate paper waste and asks you to help spread the word. You can either share your good works with your friends on Facebook or press “No thanks”.
When you are unsubscribed, usually within 24 hours, PaperKarma will notify you with a message that your request was successful. If your photo didn’t work (shadows, glare, missing information, etc.), you will get a notice that your request failed.
You can check the status of your unsubscriptions at any time by pressing View All on the Take Photo screen.
This app came out in late January and I’ve been testing it since then. I’m happy to report that so far the app seems to be working well. PaperKarma doesn’t promise to get rid of all junk mail. There are some companies that won’t comply with unsubscribe requests and others that send junk mail to all addresses in a postal code. But PaperKarma can be successful at deleting you from mailing lists at compliant companies. Here’s a link to their blog post showing letters they have received from companies that have processed unsubscribe requests: PaperKarma blog.
If you have a smartphone and want to eliminate junk mail while helping to save the planet, give PaperKarma a try.
Paper Karma is free for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch in the iTunes App Store, for Android devices in Google Play and for Windows Phones at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Do you have junk mail you would like to purge from your mailbox? Does the idea of an easy, free way to get off of mailing lists appeal to you? Do you shop with catalogs anymore or do you shop online instead? Let us know in the Comments section below!
Why do all these cool things only come in the form of apps?
So here is my question to you Carolyn? My Mom gets a LOT of junk mail including everything you’ve mentioned. Bless her heart, she’s written in until she’s blue in the face and it’s like they ignore her. Could I do this for her too? Here’s the problem though, she doesn’t have WiFi so I can’t connect to the internet with my iPod when I’m at her house. I guess I could bring it all home with me! Do you have any suggestions about that?
Thanks for this cool app. I’ll definitely be using this one.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, How great you want to help your mom with this! You could take pictures of her junk mail with your iPod Touch when you’re at your mom’s place and then send the images to PaperKarma later. In the bottom image above you can see that one of the options is to “Pick Photo”. With that you can choose an image from your Camera Roll to send to PaperKarma.
These cool things come as apps because smartphones and tablets (and iPod Touches) have features like cameras, GPS, data connectivity and other capabilities built in. That makes it easier for developers to write software for these devices than for a computer. Great question, Adrienne! 🙂
I guess what I was wanting to know is how do they know who it’s coming from? You had said “the key is to make sure the photo includes information about the sender.” Don’ you have to make sure that the address is visible that you want deleted as well? I didn’t know that by me activating it through my Facebook account yet I’m wanting this deleted from a totally different address just how that worked.
I think it could work online just as well with downloading the photos and then attaching them. But what do I know right!
I see you changed your spam filter. I really do hate those Carolyn!!! And the captcha codes too. But for you, I’ll do it.
Hi Adrienne, You would have to set up a separate PaperKarma account for your mother. If she is not on Facebook, then you would have to sign her up for a PaperKarma account from scratch (which isn’t a long process, I didn’t use Facebook to set up my account at PaperKarma)
If Facebook doesn’t have your personal information such as your address and phone number, then you need to add that to your account registration at PaperKarma so they can unsubscribe you from the mailing lists.
I’m not a fan of Captcha either, but my site had issues today and I’m trying to fix them. Captcha is one of the things I am trying. Thanks for your patience with it! 🙂
Wow! This is the first time I’m hearing about this Paperkarma application. I downloaded it to my iPhone and it’s free for download. I’ve some mail which I don’t want anymore. So I’m gonna try stop those mail using this app and see how it works.
Hi Jane, you’re right, this app is a find. With PaperKarma you can clear out your junk mail, save retailers money and save some trees. All for free, how great is that? I hope you enjoy using PaperKarma, Jane!
Carolyn, aloha. What a great, great app. Though I don’t receive nearly as many catalogs as I used to since I have been unsubscribing and shopping online for years, nevertheless there are those that just keep coming.
Like you, I used to love flipping through catalogs and sharing treasures–both wonderful and appalling–with friends.
Thanks to your answer to Adrienne, I am going to have one of my smartphone friends unsubscribe for me.
Best wishes for a terrific week ahead. Until next time, aloha. Janet
Hi Janet, You’re right, this app is worth borrowing a smartphone for. Your friend will probably be very glad that you let her know about this app and be happy to oblige. I did keep some catalogs, they’re still a fun way to shop for me. But for the ones I don’t want to see anymore, this is a very easy solution!
I hope you have a wonderful week too, Janet! 🙂
Hi Carolyn
I have junk mails and want to purge them from mailbox. Thanks for giving me the solution of my problem.
Hi Ammara, Don’t you just love finding a free, easy solution to a problem? That’s why I love sharing great tech like this with readers.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. 🙂
Hi Carolyn,
Wow, a new theme? It looks good, and it’s mobile responsive too. That’s awesome. I’ve just read a few of your old posts that I missed, I tried to leave a comment, but it seems that you’ve closed the comments for old posts 🙂
PaperKarma is very interesting. This is the first time I’ve heard of it, and I had no idea that you could do this with an app. It’s probably just available in the US, but that’s ok. Hopefully it will be available everywhere fairly soon. I don’t get a lot of junk mail, other than what my newspaper is filled with 🙂
Hi Jens, This theme is just temporary while we’re working on getting a new theme to optimize the speed of the site. I really liked the old theme but my site was too slow and reader experience is what’s most important. I think most readers would prefer visiting a faster site than choosing the color of the theme.
We have also closed comments on posts that are more than 14 days old. Unfortunately as The Wonder of Tech has become more popular, spammers have been more interested in the site and most of their attempts to leave comments were on older posts.
Anyway, if you don’t have a lot of junk mail, you don’t need PaperKarma, but if you ever find you need it, the app is free to use!