Mom Goes Green

I despise phone books.  A brand new pile winds up on our curb every summer and when all is said and done I have this tremendous stack of seven that rarely, if ever, get used (with the exception of an occasional makeshift “booster seat!”).

I wrote about my frustrations with phone books before, but I just read an article announcing encouraging progress.  Ohio state regulators just gave permission for AT&T to stop dropping white pages at our doorstep and you’ll have to request one if you want it.  Hmmm…. “gave them permission”, huh?  So does that mean that the industry is listening to us and projects like yellowpagesGoesGreen.org are making a difference?… I sure hope so.

It was pointed out that, with the growth of cell phones, residential phone books are becoming less relevant (since cell phone numbers aren’t listed) because 60% of the phone numbers in Ohio ARE cell phones.  This move will eliminate nearly a million books in Cleveland and 11.68 million statewide!

I wish I knew how this happened.  I wish I could tell everyone what to do to see that their state follows suit… but maybe you should contact your local phone company and ask them.

Now, I admit that I have always had this deep-seated desire to be a “guide name” at the top of a page, but I’m willing to give up that dream if it means conservation will happen!

The useless has landed.  Warning!…the useless has landed. What am I talking about?  Phone books. Loads and loads of phone books.

In my county alone (one single county) there are over a half million households.  So that’s one book for the yellow pages and one book for the white pages.  And that’s just the company that calls themselves “The Real Yellow/White Pages.” And there you have a million(!) phone books.

Next enters another competing company that is producing what they call the “Yellow Book” and “White Book”.  Here we are, one county – TWO MILLION phone books.  That equals about 32,000 trees!  And what about the businesses?   They aren’t even included in these numbers.  I shudder to think.

I want them to go extinct themselves.

My husband has a studio office space in a building outside of downtown Cleveland.  A few years ago the delivery for the entire building arrived…on a pallet.  Funny thing is, there aren’t enough businesses in the building to warrant a pallet of phone books, but a lending company was next door and they had a ridiculous amount of phone numbers, so a book was sent for each number.  It was sickening.  I drove there, we filled our SUV and I drove them to a recycling dumpster at our zoo.  At least THEY didn’t wind up in a landfill.  But if others don’t recycle them, that’s where they’re winding up.

Undoubtedly, phone books are generational.  The younger you are, the less likely you are to count on phone books, and the more likely you are to count on online listings. I learned about a website that is setting its sights on trying to help people opt out of phone books – yellowpagesGoesGreen.org.  They will contact the publisher of your phone book and tell them that you want to opt out.  There is no guarantee, but this should be considered more of a movement to make the industry sit up and take notice…we want our earth to STOP being polluted by unwanted phone books!

So, if your “fingers aren’t walking through the phone book”, let your fingers do the walking on your keyboard to opt out (at least to have your voice counted in disapproval).  And then make your feet do some more walking to the recycling can with your old books.

(*Curbside recycling won’t accept phone books?  Go to earth911.org to find a location that will!)