So one of the things that I finally did this weekend was register on www.catalogchoice.com this weekend and checked off on what catalogs I no longer wanted to receive in the mail. Before logging in, I figured that I probably received 10 catalogs in the mail. As I went through their list of catalogs, I realized that I actually get about 25. Now, in ten weeks, those 25 catalogs should dwindle down to about 3. What a relief for just about 15 minutes of my time. Here is why it’s important for us to let companies know that we don’t need to receive their catalogs:
19 billion catalogs are mailed in the US each year
Their production requires 53 million trees.
Their production uses 38 trillion BTUs of energy. 1.2 million houses could be powered for a year with that amount of energy.
Their production emits 5.2 million tons of Carbon Dioxide into our atmosphere. This is the equivalent of having two million more cars on the road each year.
They create 53 billion gallons of waster water discharge.
All those numbers can’t be negated just by recycling those catalogs. We need to ask for less of them to be produced. The one surefire way to do that is through a service like Catalog Choice or www.greendimes.com.
Do two things for sure today: measure your carbon footprint and cease your catalog clutter.
