Too soon - too soon. I could not believe the garish wreaths festooning the Bon's parking-lot-to-store bridge. And then to hear Christmas music as I entered the emporium? Oh, no, no, no...
To be clear, I know it is now Macy's, a New York City emporium, famous and infamous, but this local version does not evoke any positive or exciting aspect of the Big Apple for me. I miss the sense of the local.
But I digress from a more immediate concern: the recent and overwhelming proliferation of retail catalogs in my mailbox. Due to a new, innovative and exciting online service to opt out of this plethora of killed trees, I now have, just within the past three weeks, a slippery 18-inch stack of catalogs. Usually, I loft these catalogs into the recycle bin and know that I should go through a lengthy process of "opting out". However, now there is a way to make sure that the opt-out process works. I just have to input the info - therefore the stack awaits my attention. I have started the process, and I can tell you that it is very user-friendly and thoroughly satisfying.
The new online service is called Catalog Choice (www.catalogchoice.org). Simply put, it allows you to list those catalogs you no longer wish to receive in your mailbox. It alerts the businesses that they are not targeting a willing audience. It has the potential of conserving our planet's natural resources.
Catalog Choice is a sponsored project of the Ecology Center (www.ecologycenter.org) and is endorsed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council. It is funded by the Overbrook Foundation, the Merck Family Fund and the Kendeda Fund. When you pull up the Web site of any of these organizations, the key word found in all of them is sustainability. Each one of them, in its own way, is addressing the profligate waste in our society.
While it is frustrating to learn that it will take a minimum of 10 weeks before the catalogs will stop appearing in your mailbox, it is still worthwhile to take the time, during this busy season, to sign on and opt-out. It feels like an early rendition of a good New Year's resolution.
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