Archive: Around Town

Each year, 10 billion pounds of solid waste are created by direct mail advertising, but this April 22nd in honor of Earth Day, Tompkins County residents can tell companies to stop sending it, saving trees as a result. The County’s Solid Waste Management Division has partnered with Catalog Choice – a TrustedID company and the nation’s leading mail preference service – to provide an easy and free way to opt-out of unwanted mail including catalogs, coupon mailers, donation requests, credit card offers and phone books.

Since July of 2007, the program allows local residents to opt-out of unsolicited mailings.

“In honor of Earth Day, we want residents to think about the environmental impact of their mailboxes. Unwanted advertising mail that clutters the coffee table and ends up in a landfill, can be easily stopped at the source using Catalog Choice,” said Kat McCarthy, Waste Reduction and Recycling Specialist. “Tompkins County residents have saved the equivalent of 900 trees and eliminated nearly 132,000 pounds of solid waste.”

“By opting out of unwanted mail and reducing paper waste, citizens take steps to reduce their ecological footprint and help their community,” said Scott Mitic, Chief Executive Officer, TrustedID. “We applaud Tompkins County for prioritizing waste reduction. Catalog Choice is happy to provide an easy-to-use platform to stop unwanted marketing mail.”

More than 1,800 residents in Tompkins County have signed up for the mail preference program since it began, opting-out of 25,500 mailings and saving 372,000 pounds of greenhouse gases.

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