Comments on: The Story of Phone Books

By: Trotter

Trotter — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:35:38 +0000

Hey Brandy,

Where are some of your estimates coming from? I don’t see any citations. I’m mostly curious on the amount that wind up in the landfills.

By: Doris

Doris — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 06:39:25 +0000

Our problem here in the Butler, Pennsylvania area is that no recyclers that I know of will take telephone books. I would love to recycle them, instead of having to tear them up and burn them. Sure wish these recycle companies would wake up and start accepting telephone books. Several years ago, a local supermarket
supposedly had a drop-off box; but after taking my books there no box was in sight and I saw several others looking for a place to get rid of their books. I’m sure more directories would be recycled if this service was made readily available to people. It is such a waste of our precious resources. Also, I believe like some of the other comments that we should be able to opt out of receiving them. Why do you need three or four telephone books, when one would be sufficient? Think of all the trees that could be saved!

By: Maureen Croce

Maureen Croce — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:08:51 +0000

We currently use recycled store catalogs, newspaper and magazines to make the beads for our ReeMoe bracelets, and are now exploring ways to use old phone books. One average-sized phone book would make enough beads for several hundred bracelets. http://www.reemoe.com,

By: Hanif

Hanif — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 08:49:49 +0000

Just to add to your knowledge:
What is the best thing that can happen to surplus stock of phone book, which are excess stock and were not distributed? These are phone books which the distributor is left with after delivering all phone books.
Our company is involved in buying and exporting such phone books to Third World countries where they reuse the phone book paper, I mean literally reuse the printed paper. They take a full size phone book, trim the glued side of the book, and then they take the printed pages of the book and make paper bags with them. No paper is wasted, no paper is recycled into pulp, but rather reused, extending the life cycle of the paper. In addition these paper bags are made by a lot of women who work from home, so this also generates income for women who cannot leave home.

By: Paula

Paula — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:43:13 +0000

I want to help my daughter start a drive for the next couple of months to recycle phone books. No place nearby wants them from our county though. If a bin was set up outside of the school I know we could fill it with no problem. I hope to find some recycler to help with this problem and not waste the phone books that will be replaced and carelessly tossed out in teh next few months!:)

By: Green Buyer’s Guide » Blog Archive » Eco-Facts To Make Al Gore Cry

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:38:08 +0000

[...] though phone books are recyclable, people throw 660,000 tons of them into landfills annually (The Story of Phone Books from Earth 911). For every 500 phone books that end up in landfills, we needlessly waste 7000 [...]

By: Nrendan

Nrendan — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:11:30 +0000

Yes Beej & Mike. Yellowbook USA does have an opt out option. You just need to call them for now. Another thing that is so great about yellowbook is that they been around since 1930. That’s what they do and they do keep in touch with the society. Not sure about the other companies. yellowbook seem to always be one step ahead of their industry. Everything that is a concern in the public’s eyes when it comes to printed phone books probably have already been working on the solution. Don’t you think that it is always best to be safe than sorry. If something happens and we all know it does like the power or your cell connection goes down how else will you be able to look things up. Print does not hinge on if we have power or not. Everything else we do or take for granted depends on Cell phones, electricity and the need to be connected. Yes the print usage is going down but there will always be a need for it. Phone books are still the fasted way to look things up when you have a need for something especially when there is an emergency! Some people just don’t have the patients to look on the internet. With the information increasing every second it just make it more confusing. Some are just unwilling to conform. For now I would keep one phone book. The one you recognize the most and recycle the rest. Why else would yellowbook say “Say yellow to the future”. They know what is coming and what is needing to move into the future. In the mean time we all need to take part and recycle not just phone books but everything else as well.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:45:40 +0000

I’m with Beej, though I’d rather that people have to opt *in* to get phone books. The people who deliver them leave stacks of them at apartments and businesses, and they just get soaked in the weather until someone throws them out. I’ll bet half the people who get them don’t use them–what a waste.

By: Beej

Beej — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:02:19 +0000

Is there a way that you know of to opt out of phone book distribution. When I get mine it doesn’t even make it into the house, it goes right into my recycling bin.

By: Rey Ybarra

Rey Ybarra — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:00:23 +0000

Brandy,

Great article! I have been talking about this for a while now also. The old ways of putting out information such as the phone book, business/yellow pages, magazines and newspapers are all going to be cutting back or all online in the not too distant future!

Keep up the great work and I look forward to reading more great articles from you.

Sincerely,

Rey Ybarra, New Media Expert. Host/Producer of Best Selling Author Television.