Reducing your junk mail, one catalog at a time
by Eric Richard
A few months ago, there was a post about Green Dimes. My wife and I have subscribed to this and haven’t really noticed any substantive change in the mail we get.
So, a couple of weeks ago, when I heard about the new junk mail reduction service supported by Natural Resources Defense Council, I figured I’d give it a try.
It is really simple to use and, unlike Green Dimes, it is completely free.
First, you create an account.
Then, each time you get a new catalog in the mail, you log in, find the catalog in their list, and type in the “Customer Number” that is on your catalog. They then take care of getting you off that catalog’s mailing list.
So, now each time we bring in the mail, I take the catalogs over to my computer and zap them. Takes about 10 seconds each.
One thing that is very nice is that their list of catalogs seems to be pretty complete. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve added 11 catalogs to our “do not send” list and I think there have only been one or two catalogs that I couldn’t find in their list.
Now, I don’t have the results yet — it will take a few more months. But, hopefully this will help reduce our paper waste.
on November 19th, 2007 at 5:59 am
Greetings from GreenDimes,
The service typically takes a few months to work, so the junk mail flow will start slowing now.
Please use our Catalog Screener with over 3000 catalogs in our database, it comes with the service.
If you have any service issues down the line, please contact our customer service directly at andrea@greendimes.com.
on November 19th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
This is good stuff, cause it’s always better to reduce than to recycle.
I’ve been doing the same, but using the good old phone method. Over the last couple months, I’ve been calling the 800 order number on each catalog that comes in and asking to be removed from their catalog distribution list. They have all been very quick and polite about it (takes about 2 minutes per call.) They have also all said the same thing - that it will take up to 90 days for it to take affect because pulling the lists from their databases is an involved process and is done about every three months. I wish I had thought of this and done it about 6 months ago, so I’d avoid the Christmas rush of catalogs, but I look forward to getting many fewer catalogs in the new year.