We reuse and recycle paper, but increasingly we also refuse to accept it. It's easy as more and more banks, insurance, charge cards and others shift to paperless records accessible online.
And, finally, more catalog companies are permitting us to refuse the deluge in our mailbox.
My husband and I once welcomed catalogs in the mail. We depended on them, in fact, when we lived far from shopping, but we now abhor them in the mailbox. We still are dozens of miles from major outlets, but we use the Internet to peruse catalogs.
Several years ago, I started calling the toll-free numbers printed on most catalogs to ask the companies to remove us from mailing lists. It took some explaining, but gradually that became less necessary. Apparently I wasn't the only one calling for that purpose. More often now, the person at the other end of the line has been trained to handle the request.
In fact, it is becoming even easier I discovered earlier this month, when I called the toll-free FootSmart number. Canceling mailed catalogs was the fourth of five options on the answering system's automated response. It required simply that I read the customer ID number from the catalog and voice-verify the address and name on the mailed catalog. A couple minutes, and it was completed.
However, the challenge to cut the catalog clutter in our mailbox appears minor compared to that described by my sister-in-law Sharyn during a visit a week ago.
Her postal box, one of those provided in a rental complex, has to be emptied daily in order to have room for any "real" mail, she lamented. She had to give the key to a friend for the task each day while she traveled, she said.
Her plight?
Sharyn is a resident of New Hampshire, where the primary looms Feb. 9.
The box is crammed with candidate propaganda every day, she reported.
Daily? Yes, it is full every mail day, with little or no personal mail, she said. She's registered as an Independent, but can vote in the primary of her choice, so both parties inundate her box.
It's not that she or her New Hampshire neighbors are ignoring politics, she said. They turn out for town meetings. In fact, Sharyn, 68, provides transportation for an 88-year-old friend whose interest goes beyond simply attending the public gatherings. She shakes hands and has a photo with every candidate but one.
Donald Trump visited their area, but no one was permitted in the meeting hall until he arrived, nor were they able to leave until he and his entourage departed - without shaking any hands or posing for any selfies. It came about the time there were rumors of threats on his life, Sharyn said, and it may be that the team was taking extra precautions.
At any rate, she and I discovered we share a dislike of wasted paper, be it catalog, campaign propaganda or printer paper.
I use backs of printed sheets as scrap and have mastered printer instructions for printing on the back of a page or printing both sides of a single sheet (although I learned to my dismay that some laser printers are damaged by using two sides).
For my part, it's not merely an environmental concern, although that is certainly a factor. It's my heritage. My parents by word and action inculcated the virtue of "waste not, want not."
True, I've no illusion that household of one or two older retirees is going to have a major environmental impact. Although if enough of the now-retiring Boomer generation follow our habits, it might make some difference. According to 2010 census figures, more than 13 percent of the country's residents are older than 65, and by 2020 that will have climbed to 15 percent or more.
The statistics on the paper industry's impact on the environment are a bit mind-boggling, as well. A GreenFacts website of Cleveland State University reports, "The U.S. pulp and paper industry is the second-largest consumer of energy and uses more water to produce a ton of product than any other industry. ... Making one single sheet of copy paper can use over 13 oz. of water - more than a typical soda can."
Not sure if that holds true for the generally thinner sheets in catalogs, but most of those in our mailbox have from 60 to 100 pages. Obviously they have some impact.
Dumping paper in landfill adds methane to the atmosphere as it decomposes, GreenFacts also stated. That has 20 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.
I'll continue to refuse those catalogs, reuse paper where I can and recycle where it is accepted.
Contact writer Evadna Bartlett at evadna@wvgazettemail.com.