Catalog giants like Dell, William Sonoma and Victoria ‘s Secret have turned the page, pledging to use more recycled paper.
If your mailbox looks anything like mine during the weeks before Christmas, it is overflowing with catalogs. Retailers mailed out about 19 billion catalogs last year, according to the Direct Marketing Association. Most of the paper in those catalogs – as much as 95% – comes from trees, and not recycled sources. And most catalogs quickly wind up as trash. What a waste. Happily, that’s beginning to change, thanks in part to a pesky and persistent advocacy group called ForestEthics which has persuaded a number of Fortune 500 companies to buy paper in ways that will preserve valuable forests. All of this is good news for the Forest Stewardship Council, which is competing with an industry-backed group called the Sustainable Forestry Initiative to become the most credible global standard for good environmental practices in the paper industry.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes www.southernsustainableforests.org