Monday, January 26, 2009

Catalog Craziness

Look what came in the mail this weekend...

...760 pages of virgin tree paper, printed with toxic ink, wrapped in plastic.  Bet you never thought the JCPenney catalog was pure environmental evil.  Believe it or not, neither did I until it came to my house on Saturday.  

I don't know what my fascination is with the Penney's catalog.  I think it has something to do with the nostalgia it evokes of a time when a younger Willo used to peruse the pages, dog-earring the ones that had school clothes I wanted in the fall, or ripping out the ones that would make my perfect Christmas wish list in the winter.  

But I am not that younger self anymore and when I saw it this weekend all I could think was, "I don't have time to look through this.  I don't need anything in it, and even if I did I could just find it online.  It's just going to go in the recycling bin, what a complete waste."  

So the real question is, how do I keep this from happening in the future?  This morning I am visiting the JCPenney website and those of any other catalog that comes to my house and I never read to cancel the subscription.  I am also going to Catalog Choice, a site that allows consumers to limit their catalog (and some junk mail) choices to those they really want and use, thereby saving money, paper, and other precious resources.  

If you get a chance, stop by and limit your choices today.  And if you have any suggestions of how to reuse old catalogs, your catalog stories, or anything else, as always, I would love to hear them!!!

4 comments:

MLDB said...

Hey there...2 things.
1.) My sister-in-law has started making beads with her leftover magazines and catalogs. She cuts them into long triangles and rolls them from the wide to thin ends. Then, covers them in modge podge or something.

2.) How can I stop getting the stinking phone book? It's such a waste, and I go online for any numbers and addresses I need.

Lucy Pursglove-Jones said...

Agreed. It's crazy. I get sick of all the junk mail and even sicker at the ones they feel they need to shrink wrap in plastic! grrrrrrr!

Willo said...

Oh, beads! That's a cool idea! And Michele I know just the place for you and your yellow pages. I will blog about it Wednesday. as tomorrow is 10 uses Tuesday. As much as I adore the comments I don't know that everyone is as enamored and I want everyone to get the info...so Wednesday yellow pages elimination it is!

Dawna said...

Just found your blog and can't wait to get caught up!

Regarding your catalog experience, I had the same reaction to a Better Homes and Gardens mag that came in the mail last week. Seems my mom, bless her heart, thought I'd like a subscription. I cringed at the plastic it was wrapped in and knew I'd never read the mag, it would just go straight to the recyling bin, so I promptly got online and cancelled the subscription. She'll get a refund but I hope her feelings aren't hurt, I just couldn't bare all that waste coming into my home each month!

I went to Catalog Choice a few months back and thankfully it seems to have really reduced the amount of junk mail we get.