Who can deny, the unsolicited distribution of phone books is absolutely absurd?
First of all, phone books are terrible for the environment. Just consider the massive amount of energy consumed for their production and distribution. 540 million are doled out every year. And even though many are 40% post-consumer recycled, phone books still require enormous quantities of paper, ink and oil. When we throw them out—usually within five seconds of finding them on the doorstep—they steal space in the local landfill.
Second, NOBODY EVER USES PHONE BOOKS! Honestly, when’s the last time you opened one? They’re absolutely outmoded dinosaurs. Who needs them when there’s Google 411? Besides everybody knows the best escort services are listed in the alt-weekly?
Ok, ok. I’m being a bit extreme. Of course, not everyone has internet access and many people use phone books for local listings. Yet, given today’s information age, is it not possible to have a strict solicit-only system for these energy and resource sucking manuscripts? I raise my glass to such a concept. If you agree, here are some simple ways to join the fight against useless phone book distribution.
1. Opt Out
Visit PaperlessPetition.com to request that your name and address be removed from the Yellow Pages printed directory mailing list.
2. Get Just One
If you still want to get one phone book, not 10 at a time. Call the individual titles directly. Tell them how many books you want a year and to stop unloading duplicates on your front porch.
AT&T/YellowPages (formerly SBC and Bell South):
1-800-792-265
Dex:
1-877-243-8339
Yellow Book:
1-800-373-3280 or 1-800-373-2324
3. Write a letter to the Yellow Pages Association
Yellow Pages Association (YPA)
Global Headquarters
Two Connell Drive, First Floor
Berkeley Heights, N.J. 07922-2747
(908) 286-2380
(908) 286-0620 (Fax)
4. Go to the Commander and Chief
Hit up the president of the Yellow Pages Association for some one-on-one fire.
Mr. Negley (Neg) Norton
President, Yellow Pages Association (YPA)
Two Connell Drive, First Floor
Berkeley Heights, N.J. 07922-2747
(908) 286-2385
Neg.Norton@ypassociation.org
5. Sign the Petition
Tell congress to make unsolicited phone book distribution illegal. Sign the petition at PaperlessPetition.org.
6. Recycle
Now what to do with all those old phone books collecting dust? Recycle them of course. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, for every 500 phone books recycled, 7,000 gallons of water, 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space, 17 to 31 trees and 4,100 kilowatts of electricity are saved. That’s enough power to serve an average home for 6 months.
In most cases, you can simply toss your old phone book in your curbside paper-recycling bin. Some regions, however, require phone books be dropped off at specified recycling centers. To learn the rules for your district, visit the “Keep American Beautiful” recycling directory.
If you don’t want to recycle your old phone books re-purpose them for something useful. Yellow books make great booster seats, cockroach killer and x-acto knife cutting surfaces.
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Hey Olivia,
Not one tree is cut down to produce a Yellow Pages directory. The paper is made from what remains after the core of the tree is used for lumber - maybe the infrastructure of YOUR house. The paper is recyclable, heck even the ink used is recyclable. I’m tired of all of the bashing of an industry that creates opportunites for American business to flourish. Not everyone has a high speed internet connection to pull up a Google search for pizza and get 150,000 hits. If you’re so concerned about our environment, why don’t you stop driving, flying in airplanes, using fossil fuels to heat and cool your home and crawl into a mud hut somewhere to subsist. And don’t start any fires out there either. God forbid you would use precious wood from trees to do something as unnecessary as eating.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:12 amHi Olivia,
I agree with you 100%.
I have blogged about this issue before because it irritates the heck out of me that I get 30 pounds of unwanted phone books per year, and immediately I got several responses like the one you got above from people that I know did not read my blog. When haters all of a sudden found my little no-name blog that only family reads, well, it seemed kinda fishy to me, so we did some online research on the commenters. One of them ended up being associated with Yellow Pages (funny that he didn’t leave his web address that would have totally given it away without any research!) and some of the others had made copy and paste comments on other blogs against phone book deliveries. I think there is a few people that work for the phone book companies or are affiliated with them somehow that search out blog posts like this because they all say the same general thing in their comments, “they don’t cut down trees, billion dollar industry, not everyone has the internet, recycled ink, small business, blah, blah, blah.” When in actuality the bloggers’ main point usually is to MAKE THE DELIVERIES OPTIONAL and OPT IN rather than having to OPT OUT. There is big money in these old behemoths and they are going to claw at gathering advertisers with everything they’ve got. That said, I cannot think of anyone I know under the age of 35 that uses them.
I have already signed that petition and called the companies to stop deliveries. They didn’t stop the deliveries after my initial calls, but several complaints and talks with supervisors later, I think they finally have. I have even taken it to my environmental board for my city here to see what could be done. If you hear of any U.S. legislation passed to go to an opt-in program, please blog it because I would love to see our city follow!
Sorry for my rant; this subject is important to me. I just wanted to let you know that you will probably have some advocates for the companies write their little spiels about “how phone books really aren’t bad for the environment” but many of them have their own agendas. :-)
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:21 pmThanks for an important and helpful post. I’ve been searching for info about who the heck I could contact to stop getting phone books for months now, so I was thrilled to see this in my RSS reader.
I felt compelled to take a moment to say thanks since the above commenter felt such hostility toward your extremely helpful information.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:53 pmUnfortunately, the phone book companies refuse to do what you ask. Recently, our business was delivered three phone books. The owner asked them to take two back. They made him sign a waiver saying he didn’t want the extras. 3 days later the extras were delivered again by UPS. Not only does this waste phone books, trees, water and numerous other resources, they wasted our time and the fuel and money it took to deliver them against our will.
May 5th, 2008 at 5:33 amDear Tim McMahon,
What is your problem with giving those people who DO have the resources, knowledge, and desire to live without the Yellow Pages all the information they need in order to do so? Or do you believe residents have a requirement to receive your material regardless of whether they want it or not?
I can think of a lot of catalogs and direct-mail advertisers that “create opportunities for American business to flourish” as well. Although it would be a shameful waste of resources, maybe if we all sign you up for the ones WE think you’ll like, you’ll understand the perspective.
As for your perspective on environmentalism: All of your examples taken to extreme are, well, extreme. If each of us were to adjust such things moderately (ie. drive less, use public transportation more, keep our homes at reasonable temperatures, turn of unused lights, etc.) the overall and cumulative impact would be greatly beneficial.
Also, regardless of the tree-core base material of the book, what about the energy expended to produce the final product? Electricity for the grinders, presses, driers and such, then the fuel used to transport them not only from the mill to the printer, but then from there on to the consumer… Who then is likely to just chuck it into the recycle bin. Can you honestly not see the inefficiency in this?
I’d personally rather see the tree core mulched for agricultural use.
Reducing the reliance on another unnecessary and inefficient resource is just one step along the path most know to be right and necessary. The fact that you don’t see it that way serves to illustrate not only the sort of thinking that got us into this mess, but what sorts of challenges we face in getting out of it.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:25 amIf you’re looking for an interesting way to recycle phone books, contact a local zoo or parrot rescue - parrots and raptors alike need to be constantly entertained, and phone books alike make GREAT toys for the birds to shred to pieces.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:22 amI’m happy to set up a web site where people can sign up on an opt-out list and we’d send regular updates to the phone book companies.
Then when people receive phone books even though they’ve explicitly opted out, I believe we should cite the company for littering and get them fined. Who else is allowed to come and dump a pile of unwelcome trash on your doorstep? The only way to get them to stop doing this is if it costs them cash. Let’s make it do just that.
With proper promotion, I’ll bet we could get 10,000 citations per phone book per distribution cycle, at about $100 per littering citation they might start listening to $1,000,000 in fines.
It’s good revenue for our municipal governments and good feedback to the companies that won’t listen when we tell them not to dump their junk at our businesses and residences.
Who wants to play?
May 15th, 2008 at 9:34 amHow about an eco-tax on smoking, junk food, beverages, phone companies and mailing advertisers. Why? Because whenever I dogsit Chester, my favorite 90-lb Labradoodle, we go for daily walks along the shore road in my town and I use one of his poop bags to pick up trash. 60% of the trash is always beverage related (coffee cups, slurpees, beer cans, soda bottles, water bottles, straws, juice boxes, etc.), 20% is junkfood related; 10% is junk mail and parts of phone books, and 10% is cigarette butts (which is only 10% due to their small size), and while I don’t pick them up — too many, too gross — it still baffles me why smokers don’t think it’s littering to toss their butts on the ground.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:37 am