Perhaps the only great thing about having moved four times in the past year is that I get virtually no junk mail, at least yet. At my permanent residence in Tennessee, however, where my parents have lived for over twenty years; the catalogs, credit card offers, and sweepstakes offers cram the mailbox on a daily basis. Just yesterday my mother was telling me how bad it’s gotten — and how bad she feels trekking straight from the post box to the recycling bin with armfuls of glossy glut.
Last year I posted about Greendimes, an agency that, for a dime a day, will do pesky work of unsubscribing you from mailing lists. It was, and still is, a great idea, but unfortunately $36 a year is just above what most people will dish out in order to avoid junk. So I was thrilled to read about a new unsubscribe service that is absolutely free. Called Catalog Choice, it’s a site that was developed by three nonprofit environmental groups — the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Ecology Center. According to the Times, since it was introduced last Wednesday, more than 20,000 people have registered.
Since it targets catalogs only, it may not be as comprehensive as paid services like Greendimes, but who knows? Maybe the feeling of a junk-free mailbox will spawn more support for legislation to enact do-not-mail lists.
