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Kick The Catalogs Featured on Jan 13, 2010
Challenge
Cut down on the number of catalogs jamming your mailbox this year. We'll show you how!
Individual Result
Reducing your catalogs by 75% will lower your CO2 emissions a total of 30 lbs over the next 12 months.
Rally Impact
2573 people have reduced CO2 emissions by 35.47 tons by completing this challenge so far. That's equal to turning off the electricity of 35 homes for about 1 month!
Alternative content
Challenge Details
This challenge was originally published on Jan 4, 2008. Since then, about 2,200 people have accepted this year-long action, eliminated about 145,000 catalogs, and reduced CO2 by about 30 tons. Bravo!
If you’re a veteran Rallyer, now’s the time to re-up your commitment, and smack-down those pesky catalogs that still manage to get through your mail slot.
So far, according to comments below, people have been relatively happy with Catalog Choice. Rallyers have also suggested a few other junk mail services such as ProQuo. For those willing to pay $20 for a broader service that handles junk mail, phonebooks, and coupons, Rallyers recommend MyJunkTree, and GreenDimes.
Please submit a comment if you’ve had a good or bad experience with any services like these.
The Carbon Connection
You already know that Americans use a lot of paper. According to the Worldwatch Institute, the United States has only 5 percent of the world’s population but consumes 30 percent of the world’s paper. And no small part of that paper consumption comes from the avalanche of mail-order catalogs in our mailboxes throughout the year. It is estimated that 19 billion catalogs are mailed to American consumers each year.
The manufacture of paper requires energy. That energy most likely comes from the burning of fossil fuels, which releases carbon dioxide into Earth’s atmosphere. And the raw material for paper is wood. 53 millions of trees are cut down each year just to make the paper used for printing the 19 billion catalogs.
Of course, printing a catalog takes energy as well. And transporting paper from paper mills to printing plants (and from printing plants to distribution centers and from distribution centers to your mailbox) involves vehicles burning fossil fuels and releasing carbon dioxide. The heavier the load, the more fossil fuel it takes to move it and the more CO2 released. And you can imagine, catalogs are pretty heavy. Over 3.6 million tons of paper are used to print catalogs each year.
Getting It Done
Need help meeting this Challenge? Here are a few simple suggestions:
- Perhaps the easiest way to cut down on your catalogs is to use the new online service, Catalog Choice. Sponsored by the California-based Ecology Center and endorsed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, Catalog Choice offers you a simple way to opt out of catalogs. To use Catalog Choice, you first sign up for a free account. Then, for each catalog you no longer want to receive, you enter the name on the mailing label and the customer number if you find one on the catalog. Repeat the process for as many catalogs as you like. Catalog Choice then contacts the mail order companies for you and requests that your name be removed from their mailing lists. In 8 to 10 weeks, you should start seeing a big difference in the number of catalogs reaching your mailbox.
- Of course, there’s probably still a place in your world for a paper catalog. Seeing clothes on models and flipping through paper pages is sometimes better than seeing a solitary, floating object in an online catalog. And you probably have mail-order companies with whom you like to do the occasional commercial transaction. So you would like to continue receiving their catalogs… on occasion. If you don’t need a company’s “summer catalog” and “late summer catalog” after receiving their “summer preview catalog,” then this is where a phone call directly to the company can work wonders. Call the company’s customer service number and tell them how often you want to receive catalogs. One per season might be a good place to start. You can also use this opportunity to opt out of one or more of their catalog variations (e.g. Men’s, Women’s, Kid’s, Home, etc.). You can also let them know when you are need to stop receiving duplicate catalogs at your address.
- Look at online order forms more carefully. You have probably seen where online merchants ask you whether or not you want to receive email advertisements and communications. Sometimes those same forms will ask whether or not you want to receive a print catalog as well. The best way to stay off of mailing lists is to not sign up for them in the first place.
Do you have any experience with trying to opt out of receiving mail-order catalogs? Please share them in the Challenge forum section below.
Rules of the Challenge
We know you may want to continue receiving some catalogs or that you may be unsuccessful in getting some companies to stop sending you mail. So this Challenge is to reduce the number of catalogs you receive in a year by 75%. For the average household, that means cutting down the number of catalogs from 88 per year to only 22. By eliminating 75% of your catalogs, you will reduce CO2 emissions by 30 lbs in 2008. This is a one-time challenge that lasts for one year. It can’t be repeated.
Learn More
How to Cut Your Catalog Waste
Catalog Choice: Environmental Facts
Stopping Junk Mail Is Easy, and Good for the Environment
See the Math
Here are our basic assumptions:
- Our research shows that the average household receives 88 catalogs per year.
- Based on estimates to produce the paper, print the catalogs, and deliver them to your mailbox, those 88 catalogs are responsible for 48 lbs of CO2 released each year.
- We know you might still want to receive some catalogs. We also admit that it’s difficult to get off of some lists or keep from getting on others. So we are asking Rallyers to reduce their catalogs by 75% (66 fewer catalogs) over the next year.
- Reducing your catalogs by 75% would decrease CO2 by 75% as well. Your CO2 savings for one year would be 75% of 48 lbs, or 36 lbs of CO2. That’s 3 lbs per month.
- However, it takes time to get your name off of mailing lists. Even if you sign up with Catalog Choice today or call 20 catalog companies, it will still take a couple of months for your name to make it off of the lists and for you to notice a difference in the number of catalogs you receive. We have therefore reduced the CO2 benefits for this year by 2 months or 6 lbs. So the adjusted yearly savings are 30 lbs of CO2.
- We will credit you with those 30 lbs of yearly CO2 savings as 2.5 lbs per month.
Start clearing out your mailbox and saving more CO2 today with this easy Challenge! Don’t just resolve to do better this year. Get out there and do it!
Discussion 86 comments so far
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Another great resource is to get your company signed up for the Ecological Mail Organization. They scrub old employees from mailers send out lists. We used to get 40% of our corporate mail addressed to people no longer here. Especially after the downsizing. You just enter old employees names into their secure database and mailers have them scrub their lists before sending out advertisements. Your employee information doesn’t get given to the advertisers, but the junk mail really gets cut down. www.EcologicalMail.org
I just learned that Catalog Choice now provides a solution to stop other junk mail such as phone books, credit card offers, and other things. Check it out.
most people never have time to look at the junk catalogs that come in the mail anyway :)
I think that to many catalogs are send out to me every month. I think that if we do not used to much paper then we would not have cut so many tree down.
i get clothing catalogs and i have unsubscribed from all of them. i know this is a step by step process but i am going to do it!!
Yes, Catalog Choice is working for us. But, like Greens Keeper said, it takes some time for it to kick in.
Catalog Choice was amazing. I all but stopped receiving unwanted junk mail, not just the catalogs. It’s a relief not to have to immediately toss a third to a half of my mail into the recycling bin.
I took this challenge last year and used Catalog Choice to eliminate all that unwanted paper. They do, eventually, start slowing down … but, at least via this particular junk mail website, you must be patient! I had to unsubsribe from certain catalogs several times, and I found just as the process was getting old … those catalogs stopped coming! Now that several months have passed, a few of those pesky things are showing up in my mailbox again … so thank you CR for getting me back on the junk mail bandwagon!
I unsubscribed to a bunch of catalogs I keep getting. I always recycle them but it would be nice to not get them at all. I am writing a speech about the benefits of recycling and using less paper. This website is going in my report and I’m challenging all of my classmates to join. Even if only a few do it, it will all be worth it. :)
This is something I have been meaning to do for sometime. Just as soon as the catalogs come in the mail we send them directly to the recycling bin…..commenting on the fact that we need to STOP all this junk mail. It is now time we do it!!!
These drive me crazy. I usually call the company directly but I would love to do this in one step.
I just unsubscribed from some horrible service that stuffs my mailbox with local advertisements EVERY DAY. I never asked to be on this list, so I can’t even imagine the amount of paper they’re mailing every day. After some searching I found it’s a company called Valassis advertising under something called RedPlum. The message I received after canceling was precious: “Your address will be added and/or removed from our mailing list in approximately 5 to 6 weeks.” With today’s technology I can’t imagine how any request could possibly take 5 to 6 weeks. To me this screams questionable ethics. I’m happy to be proven wrong.
They are amazing with that, every 3 months they start to send me the same stuff again… but we take the time to call and to ask them to stop mailing us again…
i only get one magazine subscription, then we get the town’s paper and what ever else my parents get(bills, whatever) But all the stuff that can be gets recycled !!!!!
great idea!!! might take a while though
This is something that is simple and so needed!. I mean, I’m really tried of getting all those catalogs that I don’t even look at or I just play the bill and throw them out. And now they have made their paperless catalogs which is ssoo much better!
I always email the people that send me catalogs and tell then to stop! Then I give them my email only if I want to receive notice from them. I read the newspaper online and sales on line also.
I have paperless bills, (pay them online), and I call individual places to request to be taken off their maling list. I actually have 2-3 days a week that I receive NO MAIL!!! We need a Do Not Mail list (like the Do Not Call list)!
i only have two magizins coming to my home know but when i’m finished i give them to my friends who give them to there friends and so on!
I have to think that this challenge has a bigger impact than indicated here. Through Catalog Choice we’ve eliminated at least 20 catalogs, many of which were coming weekly. Nice to open the mailbox now.
I recently signed up for greendimes which has changed it’s name to mailstopper and have found good results so far. Every time I get a new catalog, I add it and they stop it.
I have a few catalogs I love to get, but I always make sure that I recycle them!
i have started doing this and i stopped getting junk mail…ahh what a relieve
When we moved in, there was a mailbox especially for the BRICK of junkmail delivered every Wednesday – we took it down – just love seeing him drive by these days…
I HATE getting junk mail… >: !
This is an awesome challenge! I decided to add a twist. I took all of my magazines and catalogs that I don’t use, and I went to a recycling center and gave my magazines and catalogs to them!
Im kinda confused on how we do this. I just started cutting down on my catalogs, but how will carbon rally figure this out? Is there somewhere that I tell them?
i never ever order catolgs
I’ve been signed up with CatalogChoice.org since September 2008, and have so far requested to unsubscribe from 31 catalogs; 17 companies have confirmed removal, 10 requests are unconfirmed, and 4 requests have been delivered. However, some companies do not (yet) participate, and must be contacted directly in order to update your mailing preference! I have definitely noticed a change in my mail though…Although some companies are apparently still selling my information, because I continue to receive random catalogs that I did not sign up for/have no use for their products…It’s just so much easier to shop online these days! (And don’t forget to recycle all of those old junk catalogs, once you unsubscribe!) :)
This is an awesome challenge. My grandma and I get a lot of unwanted catalogs, and this helped me get rid of them!
The website I used is greendimes.com FYI. They were really persistant
I can’t wait to do this. I saw the bio for the website in my new issue Seventeen. We always get so much bulk mail, like honestly, what’s the f*ing point marketers?
I have decreased the number of junk magazines that come to my house. This challenge was easy to do, and didn’t take a lot of time.
i recently went paperless with all my bills, and cancelled all magazines that i had mailed to my house. Except seventeen of course!
i unscribe to a bunch of mail
Just did a session with Catalog Choice and our stack of catalogs. Bad news is that the stack was pretty big, good news is that most of the ones we had previously cancelled through Catalog Choice are no longer in the stack. It took me 30 minutes and one cup of coffee to get it done…
I’ve been using ProQuo in addition to Catalog Choice… it has definitely been working for me over the last year. ProQuo provides filters beyond catalogs such as credit card offers and marketing databases.
slow the co2 in La and in populated areas
This is definitely a great challenge, but does require some work to stay on top of it. I started this over a year ago when it was listed in our local paper as a great idea – it took about 3 months, then suddenly the piles shrunk. we have opted out of over 100 individual subscriptions. however, as the holidays approached, we got a large number again. now, I’m calling the companies to get them to stop. Some are devious, such as Chef’s and Foot Smart – they keep changing our customer number even though we’ve not ordered in over a year and sending the new catalog. anyway, still a great idea.
Yea, you gotta stay on it. We tear off the back of every catalog that comes in the door, and every few months we sit down at the PC with the stack of covers and enter the info into Catalog Choice. It is working, the stack is getting smaller.
We have a PO Box and there are so many catalogues stuffed into it that there is no room for important mail. It may take a few weeks of collecting catalogues before finalizing the challenge….but I can’t wait to clear the decks. The US Postal service may not be thrilled however…....
you really have to be patient with catalog choice – if you are willing to ‘re-opt out’ and stay on top of the catalog mailers it really does work! i started opting out of many catalogs one year ago … unfortunately a few i still get but the majority have stopped coming. my guess is i’ve reduced my catalog mailings by maybe 30 or 35 companies. :)
About 6 weeks ago went to Catalog Choice and opted out of 20+ catalogs – they are still coming, but I think it takes about 10 weeks to really see results. I’ll be opting out of another stack tonight. None of the catalogs I receive were requested – most of them are not of any interest to me in the first place. So much waste!
Another side of the “losing jobs” arguement is that many government agencies are currently trying to figure out how to make up for the expected retirees so losing the volume may not result in lost jobs but in fewer hires.
To “numbersix6”: Your thinking is ridiculous. Just because something has been done in the past, doesn’t mean we have to continue doing it, especially when it means what we are doing is destroying the planet that we all live on. Those people who have jobs that contribute to destroying the planet will find other jobs in other markets. Maybe they will even find jobs in markets that SAVE the planet! The Green job market is growing by leaps and bounds. We all have to change now. We cannot continue our destructive ways just because that’s they way it has always been done.
41pounds.org is another way to get rid of junk mail, credit offers, and catalogs. For $41 they do all the work and you’re covered for FIVE years! PLUS, $15 of that is donated to the non profit organization of your choice. What’s great is that you don’t have to contact any of the catalogers or junk mailers-they do it all. And any company that sneaks around the barrier(usually one you have responded to in the past) can be added to the list with an easy email. Check it out-it works.
About the “plight” of USPS: If junk mail is curtailed,we’ll continue to shop using online catalogs, and USPS will reap the benefit of shipping our purchases to us. All carbon reduction has an economic impact—think of petroleum company workers and plastics manufacturers. We’re pushing them to rethink, redirect, or go extinct. And yes,it has to happen, but these adjustments are the choices we make for the good of the planet and future generations. No one said it would be easy.
This challenge reduces paper waste, but also has a detrimental economic impact. According to the Direct Marketing Association, “The mailing community recognizes that consumers want choice in how they manage their mail, are more environmentally conscious and want to secure their personal information.” Direct mail is crucial to jobs and the U.S. economy. The U.S. Postal Service has been among the most trusted of Federal services for years. Roughly one-third of the Postal Service’s annual revenue depends on advertising mail. Opting out threatens the viability of the postal system through a loss of revenue and volume from advertising mail, potentially leading to reduced services and higher postage rates for everyone. To Postal Workers, there is no ‘Junk’ mail. The USPS has lost more than $2 billion in revenue due to declining mail volume this year. What are you saving by stopping catalogs processed by the USPS? Most paper produced in America today comes from trees that are grown as managed crops for that specific purpose. And that paper can be recycled again and again. The jobs of hard-working Americans who are producing the ‘junk’, and those who deliver it are affected by opting-out. Remember that when buying a stamp to mail a holiday card costs the same as a gallon of gas.
After my parents died last year, I began receiving at least 80 catalogs for my Mom. I found catalogchoice, started using it and within 6 months 98% of the catalogs stopped arriving. It’s simple to use.
Oh how I despise the catalogs, sure it’s nice to browse but give me a break. I have signed up to be taken off the lists; however it seems like there are always new ones coming. My husband tells me I receive more catalogs than anyone he knows! Where else is he checking the mail???? I do save all catalogs and paper shred them and use them for packing at our business!
Catalogs in the mail are easy to reduce, but I would like to know how I might reduce supermarket flyers that come addressed to “Resident” and have no contact information. If anyone has ideas, I would be very happy to hear them.
It’s my first Carbonrally challenge (although I’ve set myself a lot of green challenges in recent years). Last night I cancelled 6 of the 8 catalogs I had in the house through catalogchoice.
It’s my first Carbonrally challenge (although I’ve set myself a lot of green challenges in recent years). Last night I cancelled 6 of the 8 catalogs I had in the house through catalogchoice.
One problem is when the catalogs won’t stop sending them when you ask though catalog choice.
We don’t get a lot of catalogs at home but my work gets TONS every week. I’ve been calling and cancelling the ones that just end up being thrown away.
If you want to take catalog canceling to the next level, join “The Catalog Canceling Challenge” at www.TedWells.org to complete against other teams and help the planet at the same time. It started with elementary schools, but Girl Scout troops and community centers are joining in. All you need is a group and 30 days of canceling. Check it out. -Ted
Yes, I am in and I used www.myjunktree.com to help stop all the useless catalogs I no longer use and all the junk mail and phone books and they planted five trees when I sign on. Its was well worth the $20 for membership for the year.
The catalogs were a major problem at my home, too many women ordering stuff I used to get 6 copies of Victoria Secret a week. I started using the services of Myjunktree and this has made a huge difference. What I like the most is when I opt out of a catalog I normally get a response directly form the company within 48 hours letting me know I am off thier mailing list. I stopped all the catalogs I no longer wanted and all the other junk mail on top of it. I stopped the Credit card offers and even the phone books. Check em out.
Catalog Choice is working semi-ok for us. It has taken a long time to see effects. We input all the catalogs about 3 months ago, and I had to go repeat my requests for a few very pesky catalogs that wouldn’t die. Today, when I was bringing out the recycle, I actually noticed that there aren’t as many catalogs in the bin anymore.
I signed up for Catalog Choice 5 months ago, and I now receive more catalogs than EVER from companies whose products I have never purchased. I have seen this complaint several times in other forums. I am about to start calling every one of these companies directly. I do not see another solution.
After Katrina we did not receive junk mail or even mail we wanted. Well, that was too good to last and now the junk mail is returning and I hate it. I am glad to know how I can put an end to most, if not all of it. Thanks for the info.
Luvvvv this one. I’ve wanted to cut down on the catalogs for years, but didn’t know about Catalog Choice.
My husband and I signed up for greendimes.com last May. It takes awhile, but we really do see a difference in the junkmail that we are no longer receiving. I just did the catalog choice! I hate that every time you order one item you then get a million catalogs!
Many retails also publish their catalog content online via an eCatalog.
If you already have the internet what is the point of receiving catalogs I ask you??
Those living in the Bay Area can check out www.stopjunkmail.org, which provides a listing of the major junk mail and coupon books you’re probably getting if you live in the Bay Area. They provide you with pdfs of the letters you need to mail to stop the junk mail – someone should do this in other cities!!
There is also ProQuo for opting out of junk mailings (including those fat envelopes full of local coupons) – a really well-organized site and free, unlike Greendimes.
optoutprescreen.com is a website to opt out of creditcard offers. I haven’t tried it yet and don’t know if it is free, but I think it is.
Catalog removal check…but the real problem is junk mail and propaganda from environmental groups. The irony. i will use some websites mentioned above. if anyone has any other suggesting please let me know
directmail.com is what I used and I stopped receiving catalogs but still a few of those credit card offers. I know there is some place where you can opt out of the credit card offers…I just can’t remember.
Yes, please stop the madness, I mean all them catalogs!! Great site!! Thanks
I joined Catalog Choice approximately one month ago. Hopefully, it will work. I keep adding more catalogs as they arrive at the house.
One of the biggest paper products we have in the Southeast Alaska is Tourism pamphlets/fliers/coupon books, but how can that be reduced?
I utilized the Catalogchoice website about a month ago. I believe I am seeing results. Now finding this new site,where I can be part of the solution, with you, the members, I will do diligence.
about a month ago i logged on to catalogchoice and i can already see the results! i think we’ve opted out of about 20 catalogs and i keep adding more as i get them. the site is very simple and the results are great!
In the past two weeks we stacked up 18 catalogs at our house. I just put them into Catalogchoice. It took about 10 minutes. I’ll let you know how it works for us.
I’ve been using Catalog Choice for about 6 months now and in addition saving the planet, love not receiving multiple Pottery Barn Kids catalogs (among many others)...I don’t even have kids!
A week ago I signed up with Greendimes.com and went through to delete the catalogs that I get duplicates of as well as those that I do not want to receive. Felt Great about it!
Thanks for the great site, I also do my newspaper online now instead of getting it delivered, not only is it paperless but it’s also a pretty big monthly savings. Sheila
When we moved in, we were receiving about 50 different catalogs left over from the previous owners. Each week, I made a stack of catalogs and then got on the phone for 15-20 mins to cancel them all! It took a long time to get off all those mailing lists, but now we get maybe 2-3 catalogs a month – ones that we actually want.
This challenge was easier than I thought using the Catalog Choice site. Every day I get a heavy stack of catalogs. Thanks to this challenge I’m finally doing something about it.
Royal Acorns, this is the site I’ve been talking about… make sure you take a look!
I signed up for GreenDimes (www.greendimes.com) about 4 months ago and they have helped significantly decrease the amount of junk mail and catalogs I receive. I would highly recommend checking them out!
I actually did this a few weeks ago and felt great about it. No big impact yet but I am hoping to see the results soon!
This is a GREAT challenge. It makes me cringe every time i see my mailbox full of catalogs – esp those i’ll never use! I will go register with the recommended sites and look forward to a lighter paper load … thanks.
For any aussies taking part in this challenge, check this link – http://www.lifehacker.com.au/tips/2007/12/13/opt_out_of_receiving_junk_mail.html
Cathy, not surprised you are one of the first in the nation to take this challenge…. it was inspired from your email to us a few weeks ago!
We’ll get a lot of our challenge ideas from the workshop from now on. Thanks.