Environmental Groups Help Cut Down on Catalogs

To reduce the number of catalogs that pile up in people's mailboxes, three environmental groups have joined forces to operate a free Web site that allows people to remove themselves from any of more than 1,000 mailing lists, reports The New York Times.

The site - CatalogChoice.org - collects names and then contacts the catalog companies to remove names and addresses from their mailing lists.

The site is being run by the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Ecology Center. Since it opened for business last month, the charities say they have helped more than 165,000 people opt out of receiving nearly 1.7 million catalogs.