Email spam, also known as junk email, refers to unsolicited email messages, usually sent in bulk to a large list of recipients.
Not only are they irritating; junk emails can also be used to push scams and even deliver malware.
Over half of all email traffic is considered spam say figures from Statista. With 239.6 billion messages sent around the world, that's a lot of spam. Deleting these messages frees up space on the servers that store email data and could help reduce the amount of CO2 produced by systems keeping us all online.
The Link Between Email Volume and Carbon Footprint
The more emails we send and receive, the more energy is required to store and transmit them. This is why deleting emails can help reduce the energy and resources needed to run the internet and lower your carbon footprint.
The average spam email causes emissions equivalent to 0.3 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) per message. Globally, annual spam energy use totals 33 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh).
Should you delete old emails? Yes, it will free space for new important messages, attachments, and files. Deleting old messages will also help keep your inbox clean and organized.
Deleting removes emails from your inbox. It does save up space, but you won't be able to ever again access your emails. This puts you at risk both in financial and legal terms. You won't be able to produce evidence for ediscovery and litigation.
Emails can take up tons of space on your Android operating system. If you keep thousands — or even hundreds — of emails around, then it's time that you clear a significant amount of space by deleting these emails in Gmail.
Free up space with Gmail. With the Google One Storage Management Tool, you can review and free up storage space by deleting emails in your trash, spam emails, or emails with large attachments.
Whether you delete or archive an email message, it disappears from your inbox. A deleted message goes into the trash folder, but an archived message is defaulted to the Archive folder or All Mail on Gmail / Google Apps.
The average carbon footprint of an email is 0.3g CO2e.
The vast majority of these emissions come from the embodied carbon of the device it was sent on; smaller emissions come from the device's electricity use, and the networks and data centres which send and store these emails.
But, if you suddenly started receiving dozens of spam emails, chances are, your address has been exposed. Websites like Have I Been Pwned? check if your personal data was compromised. These services work like search engines — just enter your email address and they will look through exposed data.
Check the Sent folder or any other folder you think may contain emails you can delete. Regular emails do not take up a lot of space.
Messages sent to you are returned to the sender. You can't sync or upload new files. You can't create new files in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard. Until you reduce the amount of storage you use, neither you nor anyone else can edit or copy your affected files.
Set up a temporary folder for all those unread emails.
The goal is not to throw all of that back email away, but to get it out of the inbox and know what a clean inbox feels like. Set deadlines to slog through the folder of back email. At the same time, ensure your clean new inbox is empty at the end of each day.
No, deleted emails aren't permanently gone. For most email providers, deleted emails first go to the trash folder for up to 30 days. During this period, you can recover emails at any time to the Inbox.
Its estimated that spam consumes more than 33 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity every year, the same amount as 2.4 million homes. It also produces the same amount of green house gas(GHG) emissions as 3.1 million passenger cars.
Fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – are by far the largest contributor to global climate change, accounting for over 75 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions. As greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, they trap the sun's heat.
According to recent data, worldwide, the number of emails sent and received per day in 2023 is 347.3 billion—a 4.3% increase from the previous year, when the number of emails sent and received per day registered at 333.2 billion. This figure is set to further increase by a similar margin in 2024, hitting 361.6 billion.
Archiving emails is usually the better option
If you are looking for a way to declutter your inbox, try archiving old messages instead of hitting the delete button.
The difference between archive and delete in Gmail is that your deleted email will disappear from your mailbox after thirty days. Gmail archive instead of delete means you will be able to retrieve an email whenever you want. Before deleting, be 100% certain you won't need it.
Archive. If you archive an email, it will be removed from your inbox, but you will always have it under All Mail. Archinging is a useful feature that allows you to unclutter your inbox but keep emails for future access. The archived email can be located under All Mail and any labels assigned to the email.