• File this under "I'll believe it when I see it:"

Titans of the catalog world have agreed to play ball with the nonprofit Catalog Choice, an organization that launched in fall 2007 with the goal of reducing the number of unwanted catalogs that consumers receive. (CC estimates that Americans receive 19 billion catalogs per year, many of which go straight into the trash or recycling bin. A waste of your time, the retailers' money, and gobs of trees/water/energy/etc.)

The point of the online service, which is free to consumers, is to provide a one-stop shop for opting out of catalogs you don't want while continuing to receive those that you do. Problem was, many of the biggest retailers wouldn't honor consumer requests made through Catalog Choice. (You'd sign up at the site, opt-out of, say, the West Elm catalog, CC would deliver your request to West Elm...and you'd get another catalog from the company about a month later.)

When I wrote about Catalog Choice last year, I couldn't even get a spokesperson for Williams-Sonoma -- the umbrella that encompasses Pottery Barn and West Elm -- to pick up the phone, much less address the topic. And I'm still getting those catalogs, many months after I opted out via Catalog Choice.

Several readers told me to just call each company and ask to be taken off each list. (I would've done this by now, but I've been waiting to see if Williams-Sonoma Would. Ever. Honor. The. Request.) Anyhow, the reader suggestions -- while surely well-intentioned -- missed the point of Catalog Choice.

How many people are going to call every company that sends them a catalog and ask to be taken off the mailing list, and follow up with those companies when the catalogs continue to appear?

How many more people would go to a well-designed web site to opt out of multiple catalogs at one time, especially if the Web site sponsors did the following up for them?

So...it's good news that last week, several big retailers including Williams-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel, along with the American Catalog Mailers Association, announced that they're going to stop ignoring consumer requests through Catalog Choice and...actually honor them.

In the news release, a Crate & Barrel exec made clear that the industry was worried that if it didn't police itself, Congress would soon step in -- perhaps with a Do-Not-Mail list akin to the national Do-Not-Call list that thwarted telemarketers.

"The history of consumer legislation is clear. Either we proactively manage ourselves or risk external management from Washington. Responding to consumer preferences is good business. It is also smart long term thinking for the sector," said John Seebeck of Crate and Barrel. (This article from a news site for the direct mail industry gives a fuller explanation for why the mailers decided to endorse a former nemesis.)

April Smith, a spokeswoman for Catalog Choice, told me in an email that consumers who opt out of catalogs from the newly-cooperative retailers should stop receiving them within ten weeks. (One caveat: Catalog Choice's agreement with merchants allows them to "retain the right to send catalogs to recent (0-12 month) buyers. Giving more latitude to merchants regarding recent customers allows them to test the performance of the catalog.")

Here's the full list of merchants who say they'll honor requests through Catalog Choice, It includes the many retailers -- Portland's Hanna Andersson and Washington-based REI, among them -- that have been doing so since Catalog Choice first came on the scene.

Be hopeful, Smith told me. The higher-ups at Williams-Sonoma are on board this time.

• Willing to give the catalog kings the benefit of the doubt? Head over to Catalog Choice and opt out (or opt-in) all over the place.

Then see what happens.

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