Another phone book lands on your doorstep. You pick it up, and put it, unused, into the trash or the recycling bin. When was the last time you used a telephone directory? If you can't remember you have plenty of company.
And how much does it cost us to recycle those unused phone books? Local blogger Ed Kohler shares some data from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in a post on his blog The Deets. According to the MPCA, only 11% of phone books are recycled in Minnesota, and phone books account for 3.8% of trash in Hennepin County.
Kohler's calculations on the MPCA data estimate that it costs Minnesota over $1 million annually to deal with phone books, which is 20 cents for each Minnesotan.
Over a million dollars charged to taxpayers to dispose of unwanted phone books, plus the cost to the phone companies to print them, which is passed on to you and me, the ones who pay the phone bills.
And I'm almost as surprised that only an estimated 11% are recycled. It's often said that phone books can't be put out in curbside recycling collections, but actually they can - Eureka Recycling in St. Paul and the City of Minneapolis' Solid Waste and Recycling both take phone books sorted with your other paper recycling.
And to not even need to think about recycling phone books, you can opt out of having phone books delivered to your house. Give the Yellow Pages Association your zip code and they'll give you the links to fill in the opt-out forms for all the companies who delivers phone books to your address.
Comments
If only 1% of people have been opting out of getting books to this point, how do come up with your comment that “you have plenty of company” of people not using the books??
Clara, thanks for writing this. It’s amazing how poor a job phone book companies have done with keeping their circulation in line with the demands of the market.
KenC states that 1% of the market isn’t a lot of people. In Minnesota, that’s enough people to fill the Twins stadium and every downtown bar, so that seems like plenty of company to me.
Of course, KenC chooses to ignore the fact that foreclosed properties continue to receive phone books due to the yellow pages companies incompetent delivery systems. Foreclosed properties don’t opt themselves out, so they don’t get counted in KenC’s stats.
Nor do people in office buildings who ignore the stack of books in the hallway.
Nor to people in apartment buildings who ignore the stacks in the entryway.
Nor to people who habitually recycle or throw away the books without looking at them.
Which shows that KenC may be, simultaneously, accurate and misleading, which is probably his goal.
Just a day after this post, a new website appeared that should make it easier for Minnesotans to opt out of or recycle phone books. 10,000 people visited the site in the first day and almost that many opted out.
http://www.donttrashthephonebook.org/
Kenc: if only 1% of people have opted out of getting wasteful phone books that they will not use, then 99% of people ARE getting the phone book.
Of those 99% of Minnesotans getting the phone book, MOST DO NOT USE IT (i.e., “if you can’t remember the last time you used it, YOU HAVE PLENTY OF COMPANY.”).
There, does that help you???
SEND THE OPT-OUT LINKS ABOVE TO EVERYONE IN YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS BOOK !!! I have. Phone books are a complete waste of trees and the gas used to distribute them.
Dave, it’s cool to see YP companies making the opt-out process potentially easier. However, I’ve been on the opt-out lists for years and continue to receive the books. At this point, I think this is more about PR and creating the illusion of doing something. More talk than walk.