I love spam. When I say spam, I don’t mean Spam (what some might call a delicious canned pork product), I mean spam as in email and blog comment junk. Let me start by saying that I get a lot of spam. I count no less than 100 spam emails every day. It is a good thing that I have a decent self image, or my ego would take a bruising! Every day, someone is telling me that I need to be bigger, stronger, and last longer. I also need lots of pharmaceuticals and need help with all aspects of daily living. I also never knew that I ever entered the lottery or that I even knew an African Prime Minister.
So why do I like spam? The real reason that I love spam is that I HATE junk mail. I won’t go on another rant about curbside recycling (speed it up, Cleveland!) or paper waste, but everytime I get a piece of junk mail I have to check it, possibly shred it, then recycle it. Recycling means bagging it up and hauling it down the street to the drop off. I get a minimum of 2 pieces of junk mail every day. Sometimes I get catalogs, sometimes just little reminders, but always useless. I am trying to close the loop. I recycle and buy paper with recycled content. But somehow, I think that if I never got junk mail again, there would still be plenty of recycled paper to support my needs.
So I like spam. With a good spam filter and a couple of keystrokes, all unwanted junk is gone for good. When I think of the trees saved, the time and effort involved in trying to get off mail lists, it seems a small price to pay. By the way, I did sign up for less junk mail online, and I have not seen a drastic reduction in junk mail. Cleveland has too many coupon books and weekly circulars that go to every person on the postal carrier’s route. I figure that since we moved here, I have gotten 470 Gold Clipper coupon books. I have never called a single vendor. Add to that the two weekly sales fliers that we receive, and that is nearly 1500 pieces of junk mail I have had to recycle. I am not even going into the amount of credit offers, free stuff or invites to sales events at the local car dealership. I would rather get spam. Easily deleted and little natural resources used. Spam is a movement toward electronic information distribution and a symbol of paper reduction. I would rather get 100 spams over a postcard for a free pair of earrings at Marie Clair any day!
Tags: conservation, recycling
