E-mail spam has always been a problem, and there are multiple ways to combat the annoying stuff. What about traditional physical junk mail though? There’s a really cool app for that.

Say hello to PaperKarma, a new app for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone that is here to “get rid of junk mail and save the earth – all from your phone.”

The app claims to work by a user taking a picture of the junk mail that they’ve been sent. The team behind it will send a request on your behalf to the offending companies so that you’ll be added to their block list.

The app claims that it’s able to stop magazines, catalogs, coupon books, fliers, credit card offers and the white/yellow pages.

I’ve downloaded the app to see how it works myself. The app first asks you to sign up either via an account with them or through Facebook. If you go through Facebook, you can “share your environmental good deeds” through the social media service. From there, you enter your address so they know which address to tell companies to stop sending mail to.

Now you’re ready to start taking pictures. Just take a picture of the offending mail and upload it to their servers. From there, the team will search for the company and send a message on your behalf to them. From there, you should stop receiving junk mail from the companies in question.

They list more detailed information on their blog about how the app works. They also list proof from companies that have stopped sending users junk mail.

I don’t really get annoyed by junk mail, but PaperKarma is all about cutting down on the amount of paper companies use. It’s a good cause and worthy of checking out.