All those glossy Catalogs?

It’s easy to stop catalogs. Search by catalog title by typing the name of the catalog in the Search bar. Once you locate the company, complete our simple opt-out form and we’ll deliver your request to the company. We monitor company response, and provide a private Catalog Choice email address for each opt-out request so the companies never see your personal email.

Non-Catalog Mailers?

We have thousands of companies and nonprofits in our database. Just search for the name of the company or organization the same way you look for a catalog title.

Too Many Credit Card Offers?

The Federal Government requires the three national credit bureaus to operate this opt-out site: Opt Out Prescreen. This link will take you to their site, through Catalog Choice, so there is a permanent record of your request in your account. Note: they will ask for your social security number.

Want to Stop Phone Book Delivery?

We are working with the telephone directory publishers to improve the phone book opt-out process. To opt out of phone book delivery enter your zip code in the search bar. The search results will show the phone books delivered in your neighborhood. Select each one you do not want to receive. While some are easier to contact than others, we are working to get all phone book companies to participate and honor your delivery preferences.

So don’t limit yourself to catalogs. Opt out of all unwanted clutter that shows up in your mailbox or on your doorstep today.

NEW YORK — Jan. 17, 2012 — Manilla, a free service that offers the best way for consumers to manage their bills and accounts online and via mobile applications, has added unwanted advertising mail to its list of restrictions for the 2012 Paper Diet, a campaign to help consumers and businesses reduce their use of paper. Catalog Choice, the leading service to stop unwanted mail, and the Environmental Paper Network, the leading voice in the environmentally responsible use of paper, have joined the effort. Manilla has set goal for Americans to “lose” more than 1 million pounds and 5 million inches of paper, while saving 13,000 trees.

“We are thrilled to work with the Environmental Paper Network and Catalog Choice to support Americans as they go on the 2012 Paper Diet,” said Jessica Insalaco, the chief marketing officer of Manilla.

In order to achieve their paper weight loss goals, consumers and businesses can take the 2012 Paper Diet Pledge by posting a digital badge on Facebook and by suppressing unwanted paper mail. By simply opting out of getting unwanted catalogs and other advertising mail, Americans can lose half of their paper weight. They can lose the other half by electing to go paperless with direct mail, bills and account statements.

Because account information is available online through Manilla — which provides expedited digital mail delivery — it has never been easier to lose paper weight. With Manilla, users have all of their important account information in one place online, giving paper dieters a free, secure digital alternative to receiving paper mail.

To make the paper weight loss as easy as possible, consumers can use a variety of resources that are committed to the Paper Diet, such as Catalog Choice, the nation’s most comprehensive service that helps people suppress unwanted catalogs, direct mail and phonebooks. “CatalogChoice.org is an easy way to shed pounds of unwanted paper,” said Chuck Teller, the company’s executive director. “More than 1.5 million Americans use our service to opt out of unwanted mail. Everyone wins — cut clutter at home, reduce costs for companies, and save natural resources. Dieting has never been so easy.”

Using services like Manilla and Catalog Choice will not only make consumers’ lives easier, but it will also help the environment, an effort that the Environmental Paper Network is proud to support.

“The Environmental Paper Network has a common vision to improve paper-use efficiency and eliminate excessive and unnecessary paper consumption. Our online Paper Calculator is the perfect scale for the paper diet,” said Joshua Martin, executive director of EPN. “Eliminating 1 million pounds of virgin paper will save 13,000 trees, the energy to power 180 homes per year, the greenhouse gas emissions equal to 273 cars per year and the solid waste of 34 garbage trucks.”

The dieter who loses the most paper weight will receive a Paperless Toolbox, which will include an iPad, an iPad pen, a Kindle, Paperless Post stamps and a shredder. For more information on the Paper Diet and how you can take the pledge, please visit ThePaperDiet.com.

Happy New Year!

This email is to thank you for your great service and share a little bit of the difference you have made for my family.

As part of an education program I was running, I registered my first choice for stopping catalogs on 10/26/2007. I kept track of all the catalogs our house received in November and December. I’ve since transitioned to a different job, but I’ve continued to use your service to help stop the catalog clutter. (I’ve also continued to keep track because I was curious about our progress.)

When going through the catalogs in our mail we separate out the catalogs that need to be entered into Catalog Choice, tear off the necessary information and recycle the catalog. Every few weeks, sometimes once I month, I then login to our account and update our choices.

Each year we’ve been pleasantly surprised to see the number decrease and this year the ‘wow-factor’ was so fantastic, we needed to tell you about it.

Catalogs received during peak holiday mailing season:

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           ’07   ’08  ’09  ’10  ’11
 Nov    97    83   66   55   29
 Dec    42    42   32    26  16

We would have never accomplished this on our own. It takes a little effort and persistence, but it is most definitely paying off. Thank you so much!

Have you been tracking the progress you’ve made with Catalog Choice? We’d love to hear your story as well.

Los Angeles, CA and Berkeley, CA - Jan 12, 2012 – Zumbox, the leader in digital postal mail services, today announced an agreement with Catalog Choice, the nation’s leading mail preference service. In Q1 2012, Zumbox digital mail users will be able to opt out of catalogs, donation requests, circulars and other printed brochures through their Zumbox account. As a result of the partnership, which is the first of its kind in the industry, Catalog Choice members will be able to claim their Zumbox, a digital postal mailbox tied to an individual’s verified street address, from within their Catalog Choice account.

Zumbox is a safe, highly secure, private service for every household to receive, manage and store postal mail online instead of on paper. Catalog Choice offers an easy and free way to stop unwanted postal marketing mail or indicate a preference to continue to receive it, but digitally in an online postal mailbox. Catalog Choice has made 20 million suppressions to individual titles through its 1.5 million members. By integrating the two services, users on either website can easily and effectively stop unwanted physical mail and start digital delivery of the mail they want.

“Digital postal mail holds great promise, particularly if in the switch to digital, the clutter of physical mail disappears. Zumbox is the first company to embed our service, achieving a strategic objective to continue to provide customers with ways to switch from paper to digital,” said Chuck Teller, Executive Director of Catalog Choice. “We are pleased to work with Zumbox to enable their users to stop postal advertising mail via their Zumbox and accelerate our members’ paperless mission by claiming their Zumbox using Catalog Choice.”

Catalog Choice and Zumbox will also work with leading retail brands to deliver digital catalogs directly to the Digital Postal Mailbox of interested users. Zumbox delivers richer content and is better organized and more secure than email solutions, without the cost and clutter of postal mail.

“The time for moving from paper to digital postal mail has come and advertising mail is one critical component of that transition,” said John Payne, CEO of Zumbox. “While I might prefer to see little marketing mail in my digital mailbox, my wife would think her mailbox was broken if it didn’t contain the important catalogues, coupons and offers she uses all the time. With Catalog Choice we can express preferences that make both of us happy, by delivering that critical marketing mail digitally and eliminating the costs, clutter and environmental issues tied to paper mail.”

Print a few and post them at work, the library, gym or coffee shop. Your neighbors will thank you and your co-workers will applaud your green efforts.

Here are the flyers for the communities we work with directly and the general Catalog Choice site:

Catalog Choice

Berkeley, CA

Boulder County, CO/Ecocycle

Brookline, MA

Cambridge, MA

Chicago, IL

Southern Maine/ecomaine

King County, WA

Margate, NJ

Marion County, OR

San Jose, CA

Santa Fe, NM

Seattle, WA

Stewart Manor, NY

Tompkins County, NY

Below are examples of exactly what we need for each mailing.

• When sending a catalog, it is important that you include only the mailing label and not the full catalog. The mailing label should include the following information:

• For mail from charities, non-profits, foundations, and political organizations, please only include the necessary information in the example below. Do not send unopened envelopes.

Consider one of the “Cool Companies” that have pledged to honor do not mail and do not trade requests through Catalog Choice.

We have organized the companies by product category here:

https://www.catalogchoice.org/cool_catalogs

It is interesting reading if you want to understand what goes into designing a mobile application.  There are very few screens in the app and it has to be extremely obvious how to use it without reading.  As Makalu documents, we iterated through lots of designs before reaching the one we launched with.  And we know this is just V1.  Looking to download the app, click the image below.

You want to stop junk mail?  Now there is an app for that.

MailStop™ Mobile turns your iPhone into a tool that declutters your mailbox in seconds, protects your privacy, saves trees and eliminates waste.

Today, we launched the nation’s first mobile app to stem the flow of unwanted mail in to American homes and offices.

Click the image below to download our free app and get started.  We give you 5 opt-outs for free.  To cover the cost of processing, additional MailStop Mobile opt-outs are priced at 5 for $1.99, 20 for $6.99 and 50 for $14.99.

In case you missed it, Elisabeth Rosenthal penned an excellent opinion piece on the state of the USPS – Junking of the Postal Service.  As Hamilton Davison says, the “signal to noise ratio” in the mailbox is getting so low that we don’t look forward to our daily trip to the mailbox.

There is no doubt that the U.S. Postal Service is embarking on one of the largest, most complicated organizational changes of all time. However, resorting to aggressive mailings by direct advertisers is not a viable solution to problem. It’s a short-term, quick fix. The USPS must consider long term and innovative options that will keep them relevant in the future—particularly to our nation’s wired youth. USPS will have to launch itself boldly into digital communication, landing squarely between consumers and their existing big customers, advertisers and transaction mailers (those who send bills and statements).

Here are three steps the USPS should follow to getting on the right path to long term survival:

1) Listen to the customer – Redefining the USPS starts by understanding who their customers are.  That includes mail recipients as well as mail senders.

2) Honor choice to make mail more relevant for recipients and better value for senders.

3) Give us a digital mailbox that is secure, void of spam, and supports certified delivery.