THE GOODS : Making the World a Little Nicer for Trees
What looks cooler on a scorching summer day than a shady street? August seems the perfect month to do something for trees, which absorb pollutants, produce oxygen, fend off ultraviolet rays, beautify our yards and lower our cooling bills. Here are three new consumer projects to help you save trees or plant more.
For Los Angeles residents or businesses interested in such green projects as tree-planting, community gardens or composting, a new “Greening Resources Guide” has been co-produced by the city’s Environmental Affairs Department and L.A. Harvest. In 112 pages, you can learn about environmental projects ranging from creating a pocket park to reducing your utility bills. The guide is free and may be ordered by calling (213) 580-1051.
Good Advice Press, a consumer advocacy publisher, has updated its popular booklet “Stop Junk Mail Forever.” Its 20 pages offer lots of useful tips for cutting back on the 677 or so sales pitches that appear every year in our mailboxes.
The new edition includes:
* A closer look at the buying and selling of mailing lists, “even among groups you wouldn’t expect, like environmentalists,” says staff member Nancy Castleman.
* The addition of supermarket scanner cards to the “beware list.” “Every time you use it, your name and address are linked to the items you buy,” Castleman says.
* More information about the U.S. Post Office as a major player in the junk mail business. “You should know that a change of address card will be sold thousands of times,” Castleman says.
* An expansion of ways to stop unwanted telemarketing calls, including details on the new Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
“Stop Junk Mail Forever” is available by sending $3 and a self-addressed, stamped long envelope to Good Advice Press, Box 78, Elizaville, N.Y. 12523.
To combine the above projects, send for the “Stop Unwanted Junk Mail / Save a Tree Kit” offered by Skinflint News in Palm Harbor, Fla.
The kit includes addresses for free vegetable and flower seeds and an action postcard addressed to the Direct Mail Marketing Assn. It requests that your name be removed from the mailing lists being sold to the major mailing list companies.
The kit is free and may be ordered by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to How to Save (Tree Kit), P.O. Box 818, Palm Harbor, Fla. 34682.
