Too many catalogs? Help is here!

[brewerpaul]

I heard about this on NPR last night. Catalog Choice is a free service that lets you opt out of receiving excess catalogs in the mail. YOu can sign up, go through their list of catalogs, choose the ones you don't want to receive any longer, and they take care of the rest. If you don't find a particular catalog, you can suggest it.
Printing catalogs requires the cutting of millions of trees each year (see their environmental info) and naturally the cost of producing and mailing all those catalogs gets passed along to the customer. The companies apparently love Catalog Choice, because they really don't want to send catalogs to people who aren't interested. It's a win/win thing.

Sorry, this is only available in the US thus far.

I went through the list and found 20 catalogs to delete!

One caution-- when you look through the list of catalogs to delete, you may find a few that you actually WANT...


www.catalogchoice.org

[emmline]

That sounds excellent. I'm checking it out.

[I.D.10-t]

More information that includes credit card offers and junk mail.

Other resources

[cowtime]

YA'LL ARE KILLIN' ME.

My pay, and all rural carriers' pay is based on how much mail we carry during a designated period of time-mail count. It usually lasts two weeks. Literally every piece of mail we carry is counted, fought over and grieved. Your box of checks is usually considered a flat for mail count purposes , and stuff like Reader's Digests are usually called "letters". I kid you not. A time value is given each of these. It adds up to how much time we are paid for. We are not paid for the actual time we work, just the evaluated time as determined during mail count.

The so-called "junk mail" you get is my job security.

[ketida]

cowtime, I'm a usps employee too.

I'm a city carrier, not rural, but that's not the point here.

Even though I know junk mail is our job security, it still bothers me. A lot.

It bothers me to see from our end (as you know) just how much mail is conceived as, and treated by the recipients, as junk. i.e. trash.

I have no problems at all, with people opting out to junk mail.

If they don't want it, it really should be their choice not to receive it. Especially if it only contributes very slightly to our paychecks, and much more to the landfills.

[Ronbo]

Don't worry guys, my wife makes sure that you have everlasting job security. I think she gets every catalog in existence.

I can even find a bill or two amongst them. When I get to the mailbox first, they go directly to the recycling center where they can be made into new catalogs for me to receive.

[ketida]

One caution-- when you look through the list of catalogs to delete, you may find a few that you actually WANT...

You're not kidding! I think I found just as many new & interesting ones as I found ones to delete!

[Lambchop]

Umm, can you order them on that website? Or just delete them . . .

[ketida]

From what I saw, you can't order them directly from that website, but you can follow a link to each individual online catalog. From there, I'm sure you'd be able to request a hard copy if you wanted one.

[cowtime]

Especially if it only contributes very slightly to our paychecks

That may be the case on city side where you are paid by the hour. Since the rural evaluated system is based completely on number of active boxes, route miles and mail volume it is a major part of my paycheck. I wish we were paid hourly like you folks. So, I have a love/hate relationship with bulk mail.

[ketida]

Yeah, I hear you. The good ol' usps screws the carriers, rural or city, any way they can, as much as they can.
But I still think it's a nice option for the individual to decide what they receive.