A look at how the PaperKarma app works to reduce paper waste. Photo: PaperKarma
If you’ve ever found yourself at your mailbox, baffled by the fact that you’ve received nothing but a pile of junk mail that will only find its way to the trash, there’s an app for that.
PaperKarma, a smartphone application released in early February, reduces your paper junk mail with the snap of a picture and is available on both the iPhone and Android markets.
The application uses your smartphone’s picture-sending capabilities to see which companies are sending you a stack of junk. Then, they contact the sender and ask them to unsubscribe your name.
This isn’t a foolproof system, PaperKarma states on their website. Some companies don’t have an actual list from which to remove your name and rather bombards mailboxes with junk addressed to “resident.” Still, most ethical companies will unsubscribe people that don’t want their mail.
In the digital age, it’s easy to expect that unsubscribing from a junk mail list would be quick and instant, but often companies will pre-address your mail for months at a time. After a while, though, you should see your junk mail greatly reduced, PaperKarma says.
PaperKarma will check in after some time to make sure you have, in fact, been unsubscribed.
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