`Tis the season to reduce unwanted catalogs.

Byline: Shelly O'Toole

Is it just me or does anyone else notice the minute the calendar flips to November, the mailbox starts to explode? I am not talking about the notes from my lovely Aunt Ethel down in Georgia. I'm talking about catalogs.

Retail catalogs are starting to arrive in droves. As a mostly-avid recycler, I try to do my part to recycle as much as possible, but it would be nice to remove the middle man from the cycle. In this case, the middle man is me.

Each year, 19 billion catalogs are mailed to consumers in the United States. The production of these catalogs uses an astounding 53 million trees, 3.6 million tons of paper, and enough electricity to power well over one million homes for an entire year. The environmental impact of catalogs is clearly not good.

The economical impact of catalogs is not much better. In this fiscal climate, companies large and small are fighting to stay in business. Catalogs are expensive to produce, print and mail. (Seriously ... have you ever gotten an American Girl catalog? I always feel so guilty throwing that one in the recycle bin with the others.) Wouldn't it make fiscal and environmental sense for everyone if the volume of catalogs were reduced? Wouldn't it be nice to decide which catalogs I want in my mailbox, if any? The companies wouldn't eat into their diminishing profits by mailing catalogs to customers who do not want them. It seems like a no-brainer to me.

The problem is, contacting individual retailers is time consuming and probably on the bottom of most of our "to-do lists." This is especially true during these busy weeks leading up to the holidays.

Last year, I was introduced to a great Web site and service called "Catalog Choice." The company's Web site (www.catalogchoice.org) is very easy to navigate. This site helps to manage catalogs that are mailed to your home and allows the user to choose to "opt out" of print mailings from thousands of popular retailers. As the Web site explains, it takes a little while for the catalogs to stop. In the long run, however, it definitely helps to reduce catalog clutter. Catalog Choice is a non-profit corporation based in Berkeley, Calif., which works in collaboration with The Ecology Center, National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The organization is funded through tax-deductible donations and grants.

Please remember to recycle unwanted catalogs and junk mail that do actually sneak their way into your mailbox. Paper Retriever recycling bins are a great option for this. The brightly colored green and yellow bins are located at area schools and nonprofit organizations and you can locate your closest paper recycling bin by visiting www.paperretriever.com. This program allows these organizations to earn money based on recycling volume. It is also a good place to recycle this newspaper.

Now if I could just convince Aunt Ethel to switch to e-mail ...

Shelly O'Toole is the administrative assistant/recycling coordinator for the Bolton Department of Public Works.