Junk mail

OK, this doesn't really fall under local businesses, but waste is an issue close to my heart.
I came to find out about a organization called Catalog Choice, who will work to reduce the amount of catalogs that get sent to your home.
We get a huge amount of catalogs at our house. I think much of it is due to the fact that we try to buy many things made in the USA, and items not made in China, which means shopping online a lot. Almost everyone we have purchased from will then send us their catalog, and, of course, some of them sell our name to other companies.
In a way, it's nice to get some of them, because it puts the business back in my face and reminds me that they carry items I may want to buy. Some of them just send too many, or, I visit their web site all the time, and don't need a catalog to toss in the newspaper bin.
We do get several catalogs delivered that we just have no interest in, or, that don't list country of origin for any of their products, so I'm not interested in buying from them. We also get tons of children's catalogs, delivered in someone else's name. We have lived in the house for almost seven years, and have no children.
Over the holidays, I plugged many catalog names into the Catalog Choice web site. It's free to join, you select the name of the catalog and provide the name the catalog is delivered to, then the great people at Catalog Choice will work on contacting the companies and asking them to remove you from the list. This can take up to 10 weeks.
Checking back on my account status, I have three catalogs who have agreed to stop sending to us, and I'm excited by that.
I was extremely irritated to see that two companies refused to stop sending to us. Not a wise decision on their part, I would say, because now I will absolutely never buy from them. And maybe, if I'm ever in the vicinity of their headquarters, I can save up the catalogs and pull a Kramer and dump a slew of them off at their door.
The rest of my opt-outs, maybe 10 or so, are unconfirmed as of yet.
If you have a slew of unwanted catalogs, this site can be a time saver. It's nice to be able to try and reduce the mailings from one place, rather than trying to contact each company individually.