Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Catalog Choice is the right choice

Whether or not you believe global warming is a serious issue we should all be more aware of our impact on the environment. At home we do our best to recycle and reuse but we're still working on the reduce part of the equation. We have seriously cut back on our use of disposable bottled water but we're definitely aiding in deforestation with the amount of catalogs we collect thanks to the U.S. Postal Service and the companies spending the money--and trees--to make sure we have the latest in coffee tables and lingerie.

In the recent issue of Real Simple magazine I read about Catalog Choice, a website doing its part to help people like you and I "lighten our footprint on the environment" by eliminating unwanted catalogs in our mailbox. Recently featured on MSNBC's Today Show Catalog Choice makes it super easy to save trees. This free service lets you opt-out by simply searching for a catalog, click decline, and fill in the details. You can create a profile to add other names and addresses you need for the opt-out process and even report infractions. I've already logged on and opted out of about seven catalogs, and those are just the ones I thought of off the top of my head. As I receive other random ones I'll be sure to log on and opt out of those as well.

I'm not saying you need to go totally paperless, though if you can that's totally awesome. I still have a couple catalogs I like to receive, but I go through those cover to cover and then recycle them when finished. Catalog Choice currently has over half a million members having already opted out of 6,270,643 catalogs! The site makes it easy to spread the word, so make sure you do after opting out. As Catalog Choice's site says, "Together, we are going to improve our lives, and conserve our planet's natural resources!" Yes, we are! --Emily

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Yesterday, I was looking at Etsy.com and found the neatest things made out of food boxes, like white choco Oreo boxes from the holiday, Keebler Cookies, Cheese Nips, frozen pot pie boxes, etc. They were embossed cut outs somehow.

I am going to try to laminate some box cut outs for backpack dangles. I have a Barbie Pop Tart box just waiting to be a backpack ornament.

My 6-year old daughter even thought of making puzzles out of the boxes.

The brand names and designs just make those boxes yummy for the eyes.

Go Green!!!

the girls of gt said...

That is a wonderful idea! What in ingenious way to reuse something really cool. My girls love to hang things from their backpacks so this would be a perfect things to do! Thanks!