Today we are thrilled to announce the start of an exciting green initiative - The Catalog Canceling Challenge. We hope to reduce the number of unwanted sales catalogs our community receives each day by canceling catalogs throughout the month of May. It is a pretty simple project that has quite an environmental impact by saving trees, water, and energy! We are joining efforts of schools and scout troops across the country in this project.
To help your child participate, please consider doing the following:
1. Start a pile of unwanted sales catalogs (i.e.: Lands’ End, J. Crew) for your child to cancel.
2. Ask your child if they are aware that 53 million of trees are cut down to make 19 billion catalogs each year at a rate of 600 per second*. Then ask if they’d like to help reduce these number to help the planet and clean out your mailbox.
3. Ask your child to help you cancel the catalogs in one of two ways: By calling the catalog companies directly with the 1-800 number on the back of each catalog using the script below. OR by helping your child set up a free account at www.CatalogChoice.org and inputting the catalogs you wish to cancel. Many children find this website fast and fun! And knowing they are making the world a better place is the best lesson of all!
4. Finally, have your student add the name of the canceled catalog(s) to their classroom list.
IMPORTANT FACTS!
*Each year 19 billion catalogs are mailed in the USA. 53 million trees are used making these catalogs. This paper production also uses 53 billion gallons of water. 98% of catalogs are unused eliciting no customer response and generating billions of pounds of solid waste (311,000 fully-loaded garbage trucks). Producing these trillions of pounds of catalog paper requires the same amount of energy as 1.2 million homes a year and creates the same amount of CO2 global warming pollution as 2 million cars annually.
We hope you will participate in this easy way to make a difference!
Sincerely,
Students in 7-2
Polite Student: “Hi, my name is ________ and I am calling to take my family’s name off your mailing list.”
The representative will ask you to look on the back of the catalog and provide the customer number (usually in a blue or yellow box). If they ask why your family wishes to cancel, you can say that your family is doing it to save trees, and that you’ll use their website for ordering in the future.
Polite Student: “ Thank you so much! (Pats self on back. Picks up phone and calls another company.)