Phone Books

Your Community Pays for Disposal

Every time a telephone directory is distributed in a community, an equal number of books are discarded. With free online resources to search for local businesses, telephone directories have now become obsolete. Older books must be discarded and new books are often declined and must be disposed of.

While delivery is provided by the publisher, disposal costs are borne entirely by the community. In areas where curbside recycling is widespread and the program accepts phone books in mixed paper collection, management of discarded books is relatively convenient. Landfilling of paper fiber resources is minimized in this scenario, but the marginal scrap value of bound newsprint hardly offsets the costs incurred to transport, sort, and market the commodity. Where recycling is not common, disposal impacts are more severe on cash-strapped local governments.

News & Events

• SF Yellow Pages Ban to Be Considered —SF Chronicle 2/1/11
  
  
• Seattle Council Approves Opt-Out Registry for Unwanted Yellow Pages —Seattle Times 10/11/10

Policy & Legislation

For information on current legislation affecting phone books,
see 2011 State Legislation.

What You Can Do To Help

Write to Your Local Phone Book Distributor

Write a letter to your local phone book distributor on behalf of your local jurisdiction to encourage them to allow people to opt-out of future deliveries and help reduce litter of their materials.

• Model Letter
  Address your letter(s) to those who deliver phone books in your community. Contact information is included in the model letter.

Links

• Phone Book Project —Product Stewardship Institute