Waste courtesy of C&H

Recently received at the office on a single afternoon; 7.9 pounds of C&H catalogs. The large catalogs each contain nearly 600 pages of full color crap. I couldn't even be bothered to look at the smaller catalogs.

It would be interesting to calculate the ecological footprint of a catalog like this. From the forest to the mill to the print shop to the customer to the recycle bin. Think about all the time, all the work, all the fuel and energy needed to deliver this product to my door. It would be really funny if it wasn't so ridiculous.

When a supplier sends me more copies of their catalog than my company has full time employees that's a bad sign. Should I assume I am paying way to much for my "Caution: Slippery When Wet" sign? I would love to get a look at their yearly catalog budget. Unfortunately C&H is hardly the only offender. There are an awful lot of Uline catalogs hanging around too. I suspect a warehouse supply catalog arms race is developing.

And the kicker is we never, ever, use the catalog, we use the website. If I stop ordering stuff will they stop sending me this crap? Maybe I don't need that eyewash station so badly after all.