Let's be honest. How many of us are actually using obsolete phone books as doorstops? Or as monitor shelves? Wouldn't you rather not have them dropped on your doorstep to begin with? The people at WhitePages feel your pain. They're the force behind the current "Ban the Phone Book" campaign... ironic, yes.
Despite the campaign's name, WhitePages is not calling for a total ban on unsolicited phone books — there are, after all, people still without Internet. Instead, they are pushing for a more logical opt-in delivery program nationwide.
According to WhitePages' infographic below, 18 states have practiced some form of opt-in, either statewide or countywide. In 2012, Maryland will become the first state to enact legislation that requires consumers to opt in for delivery of the white pages.
In an era of online directories and social networks, it's silly to waste resources on printing unwanted white pages that usually end up in the trash or recycle bin anyway (or jammed under someone's door). You can sign the "Ban the Phone Book" petition here — and hope that the yellow pages follows suit with its own opt-in program (as it has in San Francisco).
Read More: Death Becomes the Phone Book at WhitePages
MORE PHONE BOOKS ON APARTMENT THERAPY:
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• How To: Use a Phone Book To Save Your Back
• How To: Turn a Phonebook into a Desktop Organizer
(Images: 1. Michal Kowalski/Shutterstock; 2. WhitePages)
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That's a great idea, I hope they do that where I live too. At a cafe that I go to they have found a good use for their phone books, they are using them to prop up the coffee grinder.
If we abandon the hardcopy, however, it's only right that there be no extra charge for directory assistance. I wonder if that'll happen!
Not only is a waste of paper, but it's such a waste of gas/energy/time to deliver them! I speak from experience.
no one in my building will even take them. they arrive in a huge shrinkwrapped stack and stay there until the super finally gives in and moves it. one year he individually distributed them. waste of energy. they all wound up in the basement anyway.
I have several of them stacked under a table that my kitty uses as a scratching post. She loves them, but I'm all for the ban as I know most of them end up in landfills!
I only use mine at home for restaurant ideas, although I also sometimes do that on the net, so the book isn't important to me. However, as a librarian, we have many patrons who rely on them at home and want them here. Used to be the phone books for a whole region and reasonably nearby metro areas were given to libraries free. Now we have to pay for them, so we use databases and the net instead. I probably get four or five calls a week from people who use us for directory assistance rather than pay the fee -- and I am only one of five reference librarians who get these calls. Don't care about the books, but lookup service from the phone companies should be free.
I like having a hardcopy, they're great in emergency situations. I hope renters will be able to get copies mid-year if the previous tenants didn't leave any behind at the address.
My mom (who is very old school and refuses to even get a cell phone) was visiting last weekend and she asked me where my phone book was. I laughed and pointed to my laptop. I really don't want to have to find a place to store that big bulky phone book. Even if my internet is down I have a smart phone for access to any information I need.
@ Riccardo, you CAN get free 411. 1-800-Free-411. You just have to listen to a couple 15 second ads and then the info is provided!
As for my phone book, it usually becomes a barrier between the floor and wood when I do a drilling project.
Please do not just leave unwanted phone books sitting there, call yellow pages and demand they pick them up, especially if you had yourself removed from the list.
Geeze. It takes me alot longer to look a phone number up on the internet then it does to pull out the phone book and look it up. Keep sending me the paper one please!
We used to have the Yellow Pages delivered to us every 3 to 6 months. They would give each of us a big and mini size, each wrapped in plastic. 2 of the people they were addressed to were dead. After opting out, we began getting them again. I called the yellow pages each time, asked to speak to a manager and he was very nice. Within a few days, they came and picked them up. Of course now they are trying to make it opt in, it has been a public relations nightmare for them. Each family only needs one phone book and year to year so few changes are made it is downright obscene to chop down forests for a whole new book just for one or two lines of changes.
Ps that is, every 3 to 6 months we had a total of 8 phone books delivered to us, a regular size and a mini each for me, my boyfriend, my boyfriend's mother (dead) and my boyfriend's dad (dead for over 30 years).
I had a problem with our well and could not find a person online!! Not kidding I live out in the sticks but when I went to my grandmas and used her phone book I was shocked there was a ton of them but since they we all small one or two man businesses they were not listed online. Since then I love keeping one around.
Well our local directory is 7 pages for the white pages and 10 for the yellow pages this year. And it is most useful to find out who is selling stuff advertised on the bulletin board at the cafe. And to find a vet, plumber, etc when I know they're out there and don't know the name.
I agree in general that it is easier to find a business in the yellow pages than on the internet. Traveling this is where we go for restaurants, stores, whatever in a strange town. Well sorted and unbiased.
i thought i would never need the phone book again, but i always find a need. even as heavily connected and technologically advanced as i am, i am not always in constant connection to the internet (i am probably one of three people left in the world who still has a "dumb phone" and likes it that way). as an artist though, i am always finding uses for the old ones, including papier mache, print projects or cleaning up/preventing messes.
i am all for this campaign, but what i would also like to see a running list of alternative uses for expired phone books, for those that do still use them or might take extras off of people's hands.
I use my phone books at the print shop. They're useful for wiping inked plates.
10 bucks says there's someone here who will thread a ribbon through them and keep them out of sentimentality.
That is exactly the point being made, ONE phone book is great - why do they deliver dozens of them every year, to dead people even, and when hardly anything has changed?? Growing up we had ONE phone book and it lasted at least 15 years and we never had a problem finding what we needed, and we did not even have internet!!
It’s good to note the difference between white pages and Yellow Pages. Yellow Pages are used by more than three million small businesses in the U.S. to get customers. In fact, if you're into the "buy local" movement, Yellow Pages are one of the best tools around to find businesses to support in your local community.
If you want to stop delivery of phone books, you can go to www.yellowpagesoptout.com and make your own choice. We don't think that government legislation of information — whether it's printed or online — is good for anyone.
Some of the stats cited in your article are from whitepages.com, a for-profit online directory with a monetary interest in driving customers away from print advertising. The print directory industry has been doing a lot to operate in a sustainable way. Paper suppliers project the industry will use 50% less paper by the end of 2012 than they did in 2007. Directories are printed on paper made from a combination of recycled paper waste and leftover scraps of sawdust and woodchips from lumber production processes whenever available. More than 71% of the paper used in directories, newspapers and similar products is being recycled, according to the EPA.
Previous comment posted with signature, I work for the Local Search Association.
Phone companies are often required by law to deliver the white pages, but they hate that because they only make money off of the yellow pages. I'd prefer the yellow pages be opt in as well, as I've only used the yellow pages once in the past 6 years (to order a pizza after moving into my new place before getting the internet hooked up)