Can I get in trouble for throwing out mail that’s not mine?

So an old roommate has mail addressed to them but it’s still being sent to my address. All I know is they are out of state. I don’t know them and they have a very generic name so researching where they are to contact them is near impossible. I read that it is illegal to chuck out mail not in my own name buuuut I’m not exactly tampering with it when throwing it out.
Who’s to say I’m even throwing it out. I admit nothing. Maybe it’s just getting lost in the mail. Maybe it’s the mail offices fault. I’m just ignorantly living my life and only receiving my own mail. If I play that story it’s a pretty solid one unless they do a sting operation on me for a random person. No chance if that or am I wrong. But it’s honestly not fault for essentially being a victim. I understand all I need to do is cross out my address and write down that they don’t live here and send it back. But if I’m getting loads of mail then honestly it’s not going to stop and frankly what are they going to do? Accuse me of something they can’t prove? What’s your thoughts? Can I actually get caught for it? What can they prove. And maybe they should take the hint to try a new address if one isn’t responding. And I’m talking about bills and paperwork stuff. I haven’t received hand written family letters. Obviously if I had I’d try to contact them to find out the address so I can forward that to the post office.