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.
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.
05/02/08 » 11:12 am »
Hi 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.
05/02/08 » 3:21 pm »
Thanks 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.
05/02/08 » 9:53 pm »
Unfortunately, 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.
05/05/08 » 5:33 am »
Dear 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.
05/09/08 » 9:25 am »
If 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.
05/14/08 » 11:22 am »
I’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?
05/15/08 » 9:34 am »
How 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.
05/15/08 » 9:37 am »
Consumers can “opt out” of receiving telephone books at http://www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org. They will contact the publishers and inform them to stop delivering books. This is a free service for consumers. http://www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org is working with state and local governments on ordinances concerning the delivery of unsolicited telephone books. http://www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org is not against the telephone books but against the delivery of 4 to 5 pounds of paper on people’s door step 5 to 6 times per year and being told it is our responsibility to recycle something we did not ask for. If we need a book we will call. Otherwise I “opt out” from receiving it.
08/18/08 » 12:24 pm »
Have any of you bashers asked the local business owners if the phone books are useless. Most business owners spend a large chunk of their advertising dollars on a yellow page ad. They rely on distribution to get their name out there. Yes some people do use phone books otherwise how could companies like DEX show a 14 to 1 return on an ad average. Business owners spend hundreds of dollars per month, get them to advertise some other way and the books would no longer be needed. To many people have a negative veiw of phone books because they lack the insight as to why they are actually being distributed, it the people of your own community that promote the whole industry. They are your next door neighbors, they are they people that you rely on for just about everything you consume, they are the business owners, the very people that keep your community alive. So in conclusion find out all the aspects to an industry before you go out saying that its a useless function, ask the people who actually advertise if the books are useless. I think you’ll find that they advertise in the book because it does work.
11/05/08 » 10:50 am »
Thanks for the post.
You can also sign do not mail petition (like Do Not Call National Petition)
I did some search online and this is the best resource so far available online (correct me if I am wrong). I have done this 5 months ago and my mailbox is literally empty ( I have paperless billing and also opted out from various mail lists) I check my mail twice a month now. It is beautiful.
I even took the letter from samples provided and wrote it to a local Chinese restaurant that keeps putting fliers in my door. They stopped too in the whole subdivision.
http://awakening.weebly.com/stop-junk-mail.html
I even opted out from the yellow book. What do I need it for, since the internet is right here.
11/07/08 » 8:51 pm »
“Have any of you bashers asked the local business owners if the phone books are useless. Most business owners spend a large chunk of their advertising dollars on a yellow page ad.”
Oh dear Jesus, won’t someone please think of the poor business owners who are still throwing thousands of dollars down the drain on paper advertising very few people want, while their Geocities website full of busted links and clipart that looks like it was designed by a blind dog on an off day languishes in limbo?
Get with the times. You need to advertise where your customer are, not waste your money on a brick of paper delivered to a residence that will trip over it a few times on the way to the computer and then throw it away.
02/27/09 » 7:07 pm »
Check out http://www.ecoyp.com/stop-delivery-of-phone-books/ for additional tips and info on stopping the unsolicited delivery of phone books. Our belief is that printed phone books provide a valuable service for those who want them, but are nothing but a waste for those of us who do all our local business look-ups online. Thanks for bringing attention to this issue!
As for businesses owners, yellow pages advertising certainly offers value to *some* businesses. But many are no longer seeing the value. For example, a survey by TD Securities of over 500 advertisers in Canada found that a third of clients plan to reduce or cancel their spending on phone books, and half the companies surveyed did not believe that Yellow Pages was critical to the success of their business. More at the following link:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....streetwise
03/24/09 » 1:21 pm »
The Canadian Government has legalized Hemp farming! SEE: http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/high.....emp_e.html for proof! Next: All phone books should be printed on Hemp-Fiber based paper, a mega-recyclable sort of paper! nothing would be considered waste at all! Some American Shanty-towns and tent cities use phone books for fuel to keep warm at night – a noble use for the “extras” don’t you think! Don’t worry, in a more hungry world, as is befalling us now, little will be wasted! We may even end up putting down cash payments for phone books and receiving return refunds for old ones like we do beer cans and pop bottles in some places! Armies of unemployable “Legacy Workers” from the industries gone to Asia will soon run the streets! They will certainly scavage and clean things up considerably!
08/09/09 » 12:42 pm »
Here’s what I find horrifying – 3 times a year, our apartment building gets delivered roughly 500 copies of the City of Toronto phone directory (which is a 4-inch-thick tome of a phone book). The building administration keep the books stacked by the front entrance, and whoever wants one can pick it up and take it. Here’s the rub – the vast majority of them sit there abandoned for weeks or months on end, until someone hauls them away to be recycled. Why? Because nobody is taking them.
News flash, business owners and corporate dinosaurs: the vast majority of the public DO have Internet and DO use Google for the majority of their business-finding needs. Why should the public tolerate continued waste (of ANYTHING) because a select few are unable to adjust to a rapidly changing social and environmental reality? I can think of no good reason.
08/10/09 » 3:59 pm »
Yes, phone books are geared on excess waste to reach an exaggerated population for false profits. Please check out http://www.humanandearth.com about the information and action towards riding excess waste.
Rob
04/30/10 » 5:06 pm »