Blog Action Day – Tucson Green

This post is for blog action day. “On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind – the environment”

There is a great new effort at Solar Power in Tucson and Southern Arizona, which is admirable and will probably be the topic of this post for Blog Action Day next year.

This year I want to write about something that has been on my mind for a number of years and this is the perfect opportunity to write about it. Tucson is an ideal community to address this issue to as well because we have so many people that move here after retiring to enjoy our great outdoors, warm winter weather and abundant golf courses.

You think your parents feel old when you move away to college, or you get married, or you have your first child; Let me tell you they really feel old when their kids join AARP. That’s when you really know you are getting old.

Taking it all in stride my parents had been proud members of AARP for years and so when I was old enough to get my great member discounts and be a card carrying member of AARP I signed up and paid for 3 years membership while I was at it.

I was not prepared for the mounds and mounds of junk mail that would be coming my way over the next few months and years. At that time I was living in Iowa and heated my house with a fireplace and wood and supplemented the heating system with junk mail which to me seemed like a better thing to do with junk mail than to put it in the landfill.

Then I moved from Iowa to Tucson, Arizona and I no longer needed to heat my home with wood or junk mail. But that didn’t seem to stop it from coming. When my subscription was close to expiring the junk mail seemed to double. Now 4 years later I still get a steady supply of junk mail from AARP. I have no intention of ever again joining this organization that seems to have no limits to filling the nations landfills with junk mail.

In Tucson we have a lot of AARP members and AARP potential members in our community. Let’s do our part to help stem the influx of junk mail in Tucson and prolong the life of our landfills.

In an effort to draw attention to the environment I’m suggesting all current members of AARP simply refuse the junk mail and write “Return to Sender” on the envelope and put it back in the box.

I would also suggest current members of AARP request an option when signing up for membership “Do Not Send Me Any Mail”. A simple membership card and brochure with benefits of membership are quite enough.

Putting this junk mail in the recycle bin used to be an option, but with the issues of Identity Theft these days I’m having to shred all this mail and send it to the landfill.

How many thousands of trees will be saved each year and how many tons of junk mail will not be in our Tucson landfills from this one single act of conservation in an effort to go green in Tucson and preserve our environment.

(BTW we are three months old today : )