How to remove yourself from catalog mailing lists
If
you live in a swing state, memories of the October and November rash of
glossy campaign fliers are probably still fresh in your mind.
They drove me nutty since I couldn't use them as firestarters, couldn't
mulch with them, couldn't put them in the worm bin. But there is
a silver lining --- the angst pushed me over the edge into putting an
end to the catalogs coming into my mailbox.
Without really noticing
it, I seem to have gotten onto dozens of
gardening catalog mailing lists. This is pretty funny because I
only order seeds and plants online and only from about three companies
--- clearly
someone sold my information far and wide. Equally clearly, our
society hasn't become advanced enough to put an "internet customer
only" notice beside my name.
At first, I was manually
removing myself from each list. If
you're prepared with the Customer ID number (usually close to your name in a blue box
on the mailing label), you can get off a list after about three minutes
on the phone. A few companies won my approval by having automated
catalog-removal buttons right on their websites, and I've also sent
emails to customer service addresses (although I'm less confident that
last technique will work).
But the catalogs kept
coming! Not from the same companies
(although 30 seconds of each three minute phone call is usually an
explanation that they print catalogs months in advance, so you may get
two or three more editions before you're off the list for good).
So I
decided to try Catalog Choice.
This non-profit didn't win my approval four years ago when I last
visited them because they
hadn't heard of many of the catalogs I was receiving, but the internet
hive mind seems to have done its job well in the interim --- my
post-Christmas armload companies were all present and accounted for.
I know that a few of you
probably enjoy your gardening porn, but I hope this will remind others
to get rid of junk mail before it starts.
Not only will you prevent waste, you may also find you've developed a
more healthy relationship with your mailbox when the only contents are
letters from old friends and Christmas cards from the neighbors.
I'm afraid I don't know
how to get off those political mailing lists, but I've got another four
years to figure that one out....
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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While I prefer ordering online I still look forward to the print catalogue as a planning tool. It allows you to see other options and wishlist items. OK it is a bit like porn the wife hides away in the john. I'm not addicted or anything I can stop anytime I want... I just don't want just yet. I do like the information.
It seems to me you could use this mail as mulch or as a firestarter. Modern offset printing inks are relatively benign, with the metal (cadmium, chrome, mercury, lead, arsenic) contents in the 0-10 ppm range. This is in the same range as the background levels for most of them.
And I suspect that the weight of the ink is but a fraction of the weight of the paper, diluting the metal content even more.
(BTW, if you want to keep your address secret, don't forget to wipe the barcode as well.
)
There are basically two major materials used to make glossy paper;
For paper coated with the former, you could try pouring some acid solution on it, particularly hydrochloric acid. That would react with the carbonate and convert it in soluable calcium chloride.
Unfortunately there is little you can do to break down kaolin.