greenpoint design

Pre-emptive Recycling

January 17, 2008 on 10:12 am | In Build, IdBlog, Privacy | Add a Comment

A big part of information management is filtering out the crap you don’t need. This morning, NPR’s excellent Marketplace program mentioned an IM tool whose time has come: Catalog Choice.

Catalog Choice is a way to opt out of many of the catalogs that are crammed into your mailbox each day. Each year some 19 billion catalogs are mailed to Americans. And each year 18.9 billion of us chuck them straight into the recycling bin. That’s a lot of wasted paper, time and energy. Catalog Choice gives consumers the option to say “no thanks” in advance.

Unlike the National Do Not Call Registry, which is maintained by the FTC, Catalog Choice is a private non-profit venture. The project is funded by the Overbrook Foundation , the Merck Family Fund and the Kendeda Foundation. The well conceived and easy-to-use site design was done by Makalu Media.