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IT WAS A PLEASANT EVENING in San Francisco last August when John Lieberman and Jim McKenna headed to Blockbuster to peruse the shelves.

Returning home, Lieberman pulled a copy of “Conan the Barbarian” from the bag, and out fell a promotional CD-ROM from America Online Inc.

That would have been annoying enough, but then Lieberman found another one in his mailbox. He and McKenna, full-time IT specialists, decided to act.

Convinced that mass distribution of the CDs is poisoning the environment, they crafted a plan to collect 1 million AOL CDs and return them to the firm with the message: “How would you like it if somebody was doing this to you?”

The two then spent $250 to get the plan off the ground — $200 to develop and register a Web site (NoMoreAOLCDs.com) and $50 for rolls of clothesline on which to string the incoming CDs.

“We represent all who are sick of receiving unwanted AOL CDs,” they posted on the site. “Don't throw them away or get mad, send 'em to us and we'll all end this wasteful practice while sharing a laugh or two.”

Within weeks, 12,896 CDs, including those from AOL subsidiaries Netscape and Compuserve, had arrived from around the country. And sister sites had sprung up in the United Kingdom, France and Germany, with another planned for Australia.

And now observers are wondering: Is this just another stunt by cranks, or does it point to a more serious problem?

The good news for Lieberman and McKenna is that there is no chance they will run out of CDs. AOL will not release numbers, but it estimated five years ago that when stacked up, all the CDs it had mailed to date would top the height of Chicago's Sears Tower. One outside source put the total number at around 300 million.

These days, weekly mailings reach both customers and prospects. They have been packaged with Omaha Steaks, handed out with airplane snacks and dropped into seats at football games. They have been slipped into Eddie Bauer packages.

The CDs contain AOL's latest version 7.0 software, and an offer of 1,000 free hours (good for 45 days' use). Interested parties sign on with a registration number and password and when finished are asked to pass the CD along to friends.

And it has worked. When Jan Brandt, the brain behind the program, started with the firm in 1993, AOL had 245,000 subscribers. Last year, it added 6.5 million, for a total of 33.2 million — the strongest annual growth in the company's history.

What's more, members are spending. During the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, purchases by AOL members increased by more than 72% over the previous year, for a total of $7.2 billion in sales during the 2001 holiday season.

AOL claims it is environmentally aware. The firm recycles “tens of millions” of CDs and packaging materials annually through a program in which marketing partners are asked to return unused promotional disks, said spokesman Nicholas Graham.

But some recipients have found other purposes for them, using the plastic disks as drink coasters, plant stands and wall decorations. For some, the software has become a collector's item. At eBay.com, a 12-pack of “rare” AOL CDs got an opening bid of $9.99. The mix included version 4.0 and the new 7.0, complete with color photographs. Another sale offered version 2.0 on the old-style 3.5” floppy disk for $4.00. The offer claimed: “This is a rare find.”

What concerns Lieberman and McKenna is the number of CDs that hit the circular file, polluting the environment. Including AOL's, millions of computer disks are thrown in the trash every day, according to GreenDisk, a Redmond, WA software recycler. The disks eventually reach landfills, where they reportedly take more than 450 years to degrade. Some end up in incinerators and contribute to acid rain when burned.

“Unlike pre-approved credit card offers made of paper, CDs are very difficult to recycle,” Lieberman said.

Lieberman argued he doesn't want or use AOL services, but that he continues to receive promotions. He added that he has contacted AOL — through letters and e-mail — asking for the mailings to stop. And, he added, he even spoke with the research fraud department.

Graham declined comment on whether AOL maintains a suppression file. “Prospects who don't want [the CDs] can pass them along or let us know that they don't want to receive any more,” she said.

Cranks or not, Lieberman and McKenna are among many people who criticize direct marketers for despoiling the environment.

“The direct marketing industry uses a lot of paper, and the biggest opportunity we see for environmental improvement, after using less paper, to begin with, is switching from virgin to recycled paper,” said Victoria Mills, project manager at the Alliance for Environmental Innovation.

According to Resource Information Systems Inc., an estimated 19.5 billion catalogs were mailed in the United States in 2000 — 71 for every man, woman and child — and that they used up nearly 3.6 million tons of paper. According to the alliance, paper releases toxic chemicals in the air and water, and makes up the largest portion of municipal solid waste.