What do one million users translate into in terms of environmental benefits? According to the EDF Paper Calculator, our one million users – who have collectively opted out of approximately 13.3 million catalogs – are saving:
This is a remarkable achievement, and grossly exceeds the Catalog Choice creators’ wildest expectations. Believe it or not, at the time of launch, we had hoped to have 100,000 users by the end of our first year. We clearly blew that goal out of the water – by a factor of 10!
But to fully realize these potential environmental benefits – and save our users from the inconvenience and annoyance of pulling all those unwanted catalogs out of their mailboxes – we still have work to do. Merchant compliance with Catalog Choice users’ opt-out requests is still voluntary. As many who are already members have no doubt discovered, while many companies are acting responsibly (and in their own economic self-interest) to honor your requests, others continue to refuse to do so and their customers (or for the truly frustrated, former customers) keep receiving their catalogs even after opting out.
We continue to work hard every day to convince every catalog mailer to comply with our users’ requests, and we are making progress.
To help push us over the edge in terms of merchant compliance there are a few simple things you can do, too:
Help us reach that all important one million mark that will let the catalog industry know just how important it is to you that they honor your mail preferences!
]]>Responding to a significant and increasing decline in first class mail – due to the ever-growing use of email, on-line banking, and efforts like our own Catalog Choice – the U.S. Postal Service has come up with an exciting initiative to keep itself relevant, while also addressing a pressing environmental challenge.
The U.S. Postal Service just began a free recycling program for small electronic devices. Have an old cell phone or camera to recycle and live in one of the 10 pilot cities? Just put your device in one of the free prepaid pouches that will be available in your local post office and it gets sent to a nearby center for refurbishment or recycling.
The postal service believes it can profit by recycling these obsolete electronics, which contain valuable, if often toxic materials. Electronics are of particular environmental concern because they are the fastest growing part of the residential waste stream and can contain lead, mercury, cadmium and other harmful materials. And if this program is a success, the USPS may expand it to cover other materials, such as all those expired pharmaceuticals that have been turning up in our drinking water.
Not only does this initiative hold out the promise for helping to keep our nation’s postal service relevant and in business, but it couldn’t come at a better time in helping to address the growing proliferation of e-waste.
Those of you who have read my past blog posts will know that NRDC has been working to enact e-waste recycling laws for a number of years, including a set of bills in New York City that will pass next week. Like nine other state laws currently in place, New York’s plan requires manufacturers to create programs to take back their discarded products.
Which brings us back to the USPS take-back initiative. Because every community in the country has a Post Office, this program has the potential to help manufacturers who are still figuring out how to get their products back from consumers. If the small electronic pilot succeeds, there will be a tremendous opportunity for the USPS to build on that success by partnering with manufacturers to take back electronics of all sizes.
The USPS should be applauded for advancing this progressive take-back initiative, which has the potential to benefit its employees, consumers and the environment all in one fell swoop. This is just the kind of creative thinking we’d all like to see more of – if not to come up with ourselves!
]]>Since that time, nearly half a million people have signed up with Catalog Choice, of which NRDC is a sponsoring organization. Those 500,000 people have together already opted out of more than 5 million catalogs. Since most mailers send on average 11 catalogs a year, that means that in a few short months, the Catalog Choice community has already cancelled more than 55 million catalogs that were destined – unread! – for the landfill, the incinerator or the recycling plant.
And Catalog Choice got a tremendous boost this morning when we were featured on the Today Show! The segment (click the “launch” button), part of the “Today Goes Green” series, is hosted by Ann Curry and features a fabulous group of school kids who have taken on the challenge of cancelling unwanted catalogs – and extended that challenge to schools across the country. By noon EST, Catalog Choice’s registered users had increased by more than 30,000 and the hits just keep coming!
To put this all in perspective, every year, the catalog industry mails more than 19 billion catalogs in the United States. A shocking approximately 95% of those catalogs are made from virgin forests (i.e., with no recycled paper content), at great ecological costs to our atmosphere, biodiversity, water, rare forests, landfills and incinerators.
Overall, producing that many catalogs on an annual basis uses:
· 53 million trees – the equivalent of clear-cutting 2000 Central Parks
· 3.6 million tons of paper
· 38 billion BTUs of power – enough energy to power 1.2 million homes per year
· 5.2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions – equal to the annual emissions 2 million cars
· 53 billion gallons of water – enough to fill 81,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools
Yet the industry’s own research shows that only less than 2% of the catalogs received in this country actually result in a purchase.
In other words, the billions of unwanted catalogs that are mailed every year – besides being clogging our mailboxes – result in a tremendous waste of precious natural resources.
To date, Catalog Choice’s members have already saved more than 150,000 trees, enough energy to power 3,500 homes for a year, and as much global warming pollution as emitted by 6,000 cars over a year.
But we still have much to do. So if you haven’t already, please join in our efforts to rid Americans’ mailboxes of resource-squandering unwanted catalogs. And if you are already a member, don’t forget to tell your friends and family to sign up and take control over their mailboxes.
For those of you who are already registered users – or plan to join the Catalog Choice community – thank you! Also, we have also recently rolled out a series of updates to the site to let you readily determine which of the catalog companies you have requested to stop sending you their catalogs are honoring your requests, and which still need to come on board. This link takes you to a thorough explanation of the site’s new features. We hope you find them useful, and be assured that more is to come as we continue in our efforts to ensure that all of our members’ requests to get off mailing lists are being duly honored.
]]>Earlier this month, the non-profit Lower East Side Ecology Center (LESEC) sponsored its fifth annual After the Holidays E-Waste Collection Event in New York City. More than 500 people showed up at this year’s event, which brought in over 35,000 pounds of e-waste for recycling. This public service announcement produced for Science Friday and posted on green.tv features the LESEC event and provides a nice quick sketch of why e-cycling is so important.
Events like these demonstrate the tremendous demand that exists for easy and reliable opportunities to safely get rid of our unwanted electronics. That is why NRDC has been working for several years to enact progressive, comprehensive e-cycling laws across the country.
On January 30th, the New York City Council is poised to enact the nation’s first comprehensive municipal electronic recycling law, which NRDC had a major hand in drafting and advocating aggressively to get passed. I’ll write more after the 30th, when our next major efforts will be directed at convincing Mayor Bloomberg to sign the bill into law and then moving to Albany to push for a statewide e-waste law. It suffices to say for now that successful passage of the New York City law, which would require manufacturers to conduct events like LESEC’s and/or provide other convenient ways to return used electronics for recycling, would provide a very satisfying cap to the month of January!
]]>Some states have laws in place to require e-waste recycling, though many of those laws are newly enacted and have yet to be implemented. (Today, the only states with active e-waste recycling laws are California, Maine and Maryland. E-waste laws will be coming into effect over the next couple of years in Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Texas, North Carolina and Connecticut. And many other states are considering passing such laws.)
But what do you do if you live in a state without an e-waste law currently in effect? Many municipalities and some non-profit organizations across the country conduct periodic voluntary e-waste collection events where you can bring your discarded electronics for recycling, usually for free. And an increasing number of manufacturers have “take back” programs, which allow you to send your e-waste back to them for recycling, either at no or little charge. Some large retailers will also take back e-waste for recycling, generally for a fee. Another great option is to donate your used electronics - provided they are in good condition - to a charitable organization so they can be put to good use by someone in need.
For more information on what you can do to safely get rid of your holiday e-waste, including helpful links to manufacturers, retailers and charitable organizations that handle e-waste, visit NRDC’s Green Living webpage.
And then you can really enjoy your holiday booty guilt-free!
]]>Well, the best thing is to bring reusable canvas bags with you to the grocery store, but unless you're more prepared than an Eagle Scout you'll still have to choose between the other two from time to time. The answer usually comes down to which is easier to reuse and recycle in your community.
Check it out, and go read the excellent listener comments on Brian's blog, too!
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Although we may feel a little better taking those unread, unwanted catalogs and putting them in the recycling bin instead of trashing them, most of us know that only addresses a tiny portion of the overall environmental impact associated with getting the catalogs in our mailboxes in the first instance, and then disposing of them.
A few key facts: Each year, 19 billion catalogs are mailed to American consumers. Catalog production uses approximately 3.6 million tons of paper, derived from 8.3 million tons of wood. Put in perspective, that’s 53 million trees – equivalent to the number of trees in 2,000 Central Parks.
Energy use to produce and dispose of this volume of paper is estimated at 119 trillion BTUs, and CO2 emissions are estimated at 11 million tons per year. Total wastewater discharges are estimated at 56 billion gallons, which is the equivalent of 574,000 households’ annual discharge. Total solid waste is about 4.1 million tons – equal to the amount of annual waste generated by almost 2 million households.
That’s a lot of resources and a lot of pollution! All for something we spent approximately three seconds removing from the mailbox, glancing at with a scowl, and then tossing in the recycling bin.
Until now, getting off of catalogers’ mailing lists has been a difficult, costly and unreliable process. And the only option was to do a “blanket” do-not-mail request, so that you couldn’t choose to continue to get those catalogs you do enjoy receiving. But now there is a new solution that is easy, reliable, and best of all, free!
This week, NRDC and its partners in the Catalog Choice Task Force (the National Wildlife Federation, the Ecology Center and several funding organizations) launched a free, new online service called “Catalog Choice”. This service allows you to “opt out” of receiving those specific catalogs you no longer wish to receive. Essentially, it allows consumers to put a stop to the undesired catalogs they receive while helping to reduce global warming, waste, and deforestation at the same time.
You can check out the website today at www.catalogchoice.org. Given the surge of catalog mailings during the holiday season, we’re trying to quickly spread the word about Catalog Choice. While many of us enjoy the convenience of catalog shopping, it’s nice to know that there is also an easy and free solution to put a stop to unwanted catalog mailings.
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