Archive: Around Town

Marking the one year anniversary of its municipal partnership program Catalog Choice for Communities, Catalog Choice—the nation’s leading mail preference service dedicated to eliminating unwanted mail—has announced the environmental benefits for its community partners.

Since March 2011, Catalog Choice has processed more than 5,000 opt-out requests for residents in Tompkins County. As an inaugural Catalog Choice for Communities partner, Tompkins County has saved 200 trees; 191,000 gallons of water; 28,000 pounds of solid waste and 79,000 pounds of greenhouse gas, to date. Compounded with the other municipal partners, Tompkins County has helped to save:

• 20,000 trees saved (the amount of trees in New York’s Central Park)
• 19,000,000 gallons of water saved (29 Olympic sized swimming pools)
• 3,000,000 pounds of solid waste saved (enough to fill 125 garbage trucks)
• 8,000,000 pounds of greenhouse gas saved (the amount of emissions produced annually by 364 HUMMERS)

“The Tompkins County partnership with Catalog Choice has been well received by our residents,” said Barbara Eckstrom, Tompkins County Solid Waste Manager. “The Catalog Choice for Communities infrastructure has provided a practical approach that allows our residents to make a choice about what enters their mailboxes and to help us with our waste prevention strategy.”

Created by the Berkeley-based non-profit, Catalog Choice for Communities is a zero-waste program for unwanted mail and phone books. Catalog Choice hosts Tompkins-co.catalogchoice.org, where Tompkins County residents can opt-out of unwanted mail. Summary reports by zip code are shared by Catalog Choice on citizen participation, solid waste diversion, CO2 reductions and other environmental benefits. Communities that work with Catalog Choice stop five times more unsolicited mail at the source than others in the U.S.

“Not only does unwanted mail cause clutter and waste resources, it is costly to collect and dispose of, which we ultimately pay for through local taxes and fees,” said Chuck Teller, executive director, Catalog Choice. “As communities pursue zero waste and landfill diversion, this initiative is essential. It is a win-win for everyone, including companies that don’t want to send mail to people who don’t want it.”

Americans receive more than 100 billion pieces of unsolicited mail each year, and 62 percent of it is not recycled.

“Communities around the country recognize the magnitude of problems created by unwanted mail and want to make a change. Since we launched the program, 19 communities representing over 100 cities have signed on and we’re pleased to have Tompkins County as one of them,” added Teller. “We anticipate doubling that partnership number in 2012 and look forward to rapidly expanding this movement and our impact.”

Other current partners are: San Jose, Pasadena, Redlands, Santa Monica, the Costa Mesa Sanitary District, Los Gatos and Berkeley, CA; Boulder County, CO; Cambridge and Brookline, MA; Seattle and King County, WA; Santa Fe, NM; Chicago, Il; Margate City, NJ; Village of Stewart Manor, NY; Marion County (Salem), OR; and Southern Maine.

In addition to its community partnerships, Catalog Choice offers consumers a number of options to opt-out of unsolicited mail including their premium MailStop™ solutions. MailStop Mobile is the first smartphone app which allows users to take pictures of unwanted mail and get delisted for free. MailStop Envelopes is the offline complement and allows users to mail in labels. Catalog Choice processes the requests and monitors compliance.

v8i11