Santa brings presents. The Tooth Fairy brings cash. But what does the US Mail bring to your house more and more these days? Catalogs! Big, shiny, cut-down-a-tree catalogs. And all the information in those catalogs is on their Web sites anyway.
It's not enough to just recycle the catalogs: you can't make trees out of old catalogs. Trust me, I've tried. They just fall over and the squirrels laugh at you.
So what do we do? Easy. Ask Elsie! She writes:
Our school's 3rd 4th and 5th graders, have been working on the "Catalog Challenge". In the "Catalog Challenge" we try to cancel unused catalogs! It not only saves paper and trees — it saves water electricity and energy! When you cancel catalogs you are reducing. And when you recycle them you are recycling and reusing. 3rd grade canceled 1,700 catalogs ! 4th grade canceled 1,450 catalogs! And 5th grade canceled 1,025 catalogs! After we weighed the catalogs we recycled all 4,175 catalogs. We were all winners and we are hoping to become a perfectly green school, faculty, and student body.
There are several sites that help you cancel catalogs. There's Catalog End and 41 pounds (named after the weight of the average amount of junk mail we all get each year. There's Catalog Choice too. Most catalogs should have a free phone number to call. Check with your parents if it's okay to call.
It doesn't make sense for businesses to send catalogs to people who don't want them, so everybody benefits by this. They save money because they have less waste, and we save trees.
The squirrels will probably find something else to laugh about too.
