Some useful information, some anecdotes, some rantings, and some inspiration
from my quest to make my family and perhaps the world around me A Little Greener Every Day

Last week, as precipitation of one form or another was pummeling the East Coast, Yellow Book deliverers were busy placing unwanted phone books on the doorsteps of unsuspecting recipients. Those books sat there, soaking up water through the plastic bag that did nothing to protect them from the elements, until people like me opened their front doors.

I pitched an incredible nutty as I was rushing out the door to get my kids to school in the pouring rain when I saw the sopping phone book that I had I tried to opt out of sitting on my doorstep. I was livid. The fact that it was left in the pouring rain was proof to me that the phone book company doesn’t value the product they are pushing on us. They simply want to sell ad space and make their money. If those ads end up unreadable or the coupons in the book end up unusable because the books get damaged, they don’t give a rip. They made their money. They successfully delivered the books to the numbers that they promised the advertisers.

Back in early September I wrote about a service that you can sign up for to opt out of receiving unsolicited phone books called Yellow Pages Goes Green. I signed up for the services. Clearly, the phone book company was unimpressed with my attempt to stop the madness of huge, unneeded books full of information that I can get easily from my iPhone or my laptop being delivered to my doorstep regularly

I wondered if people still use the phone book so I threw the question out on Twitter. Only one person who responded uses the phone book for its intended purpose, and she does it rarely. Now, I do understand that Twitter users are very technically savvy and of course they would use a computer or a cell phone to look up information that is in the phone book. This isn’t a conclusive survey. Here are some of the responses I got.

• I use mine as kindling ; )
• Pbook now goes direct to recycle bin.
• Stack the yellow pages on top of the water heater in the pantry and use them once in a blue moon, sometimes to look up a business
• I take the old yellow pages off the shelf in the closet & replace it with the new y.p., which will also sit unused for 1 yr. LOL
• It ended up in recycling. Very annoying to opt out & then get it. Try to do something good for the enviro & Im thrawted. (response from someone else who attempted to opt out)
• FYI: In Germany we can collect our yellow pages from a local post office or store (upon notification by postcard) #sustainable
• i have allergies to the paper & ink. can’t even bring them through house to trash. they go right into recycling.
• I reycle old telephone books – They become paper mache sculptures & also in my handmade plantable seed paper

Do you think that the businesses that pay to take out ads in the yellow pages year after year realize that this is what is happening to the book their ads are appearing in. Someone needs to tell them their money would be better spent on an informative, up to date website.

We need a valid way to be able to opt out of the phone book. According to a piece printed last year on Lubbuck Online, a yellow pages spokeswoman says, “most of the country’s 200-plus Yellow Pages publishers already allow people to opt out from receiving the books by phone, mail or online.” I’ll be darned if I can easily find the information on how to do it, though.