Banning phone book litter in Seattle? Not so fast...

Last week the city of Seattle made an important step last week - it voted "on a yellow pages "opt-out" ordinance that would get rid of those phone books." It makes Seattle the first city in the country to set up an opt-out registry if you don't want to receive yellow pages.

We have discussed here before how wasteful are the Yellow/White Pages' practices ('The Yellow Pages are going green, but how about eliminating the wasteful printing in the first place?') and also compared the carbon footprint of a search on Google and a Yellow Pages directory. So any step in the right direction is a reason to be more optimistic.

Nevertheless, I'm not sure if the headline given by our friends at Treehugger to this story (Phone Book Litter Banned in Seattle, Nation's First Opt-Out City) is not a bit too optimistic. Applying Opt-out system is an important step, but it's very far from banning phone book litter. First, you can already opt out system for Yellow Pages (well, right now they're upgrading it so you can't really use it) and second, it's going to be real ban only when it will change to an opt-in system.

I'm afraid that even the most user-friendly opt-out system won't get enough people to move themselves out of the list, even in a progressive city like Seattle. If the city really wants "to allow residents to say no to the books" it should give them the freedom to choose if they want to receive these books in the first place. It's reasonable, better to the environment and will save money to the city (according to the announcement "City Councilor Mike O'Brien says unwanted yellow pages cost the Seattle $350,000 a year in recycling costs").

So I hope that the city of Seattle won't stop in launching an opt-out system and will end the current wasteful practice by creating an opt-in system to get things done. Then, we'll be able to talk about banning phone books litter in Seattle.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Who needs paper phone books anymore?

I read Ideal Bite's tips for many years and I always find there interesting green information, ideas and recommendations. Yesterday's tip was about an issue that relates almost to anyone - phone books.

Is there really a need for a paper phonebook on the digital age when we get so much info in one click? personally I think we don't need paper phone books anymore. Certainly we don't need to receive a new one every year. Do you know anyone who still use phone books?

The benefits of phone books are marginal if any. If you're looking for a phone number, you can find it very easily on websites such as AnyWho, PhoneNumber.com and White Pages, or even the Google SMS service from your mobile phone.

And what about the costs?

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Well, the costs are significant. According to Ideal Bite about 540 million unsolicited phone books arrive at American doors annually. What does it mean in terms of trees? according to Ted.me the average weight of the a phone directory is 3.62 pounds, so if we use the equation of 1 metric ton of paper = 20 trees (which we use here for the book industry), we get this number: 17,740,000 trees. Yes, almost 18 million trees are cut down every year to produce these chubby unnecessary phone books.

Even more frustrating is the fact that so many of them end in landfills instead of the recycling bins. According to Ideal Bite, phone books make for about 660,000 tons of trash every year!

So what can you about it? how can we stop receiving phone books we don't need and don't use? Ideal Bite's tip is to use YellowPagesGoesGreen.org - it's a movement against unsolicited phone book delivery (both Yellow and White Pages books), where you can sign up to remove your home or office from receiving the telephone directories.

You're also welcome to visit YellowPagesGoesGreen.org to get more information about this phenomenon and find out why you keep getting these books every year (hint: someone is making money out of it..) and how many of them are recycled (less than 10%!). So check it out and spread the word about this option to stop receiving phone books year after year.

The bottom line is that it's all about the money - Ted.me reports that the directory industry worth to the telephone companies in the United States $13.58 billion! The power of the industry and the money it makes is based mainly on its wide circulation - if many people will ask not to receive these phone books anymore, phonebooks won't be that attractive and eventually advertisers will look for other routes to put their money into (maybe the websites that provide the same service without cutting any trees..).

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net