Phone books, Yellow Pages, Thomson directory – and unwanted waste.

Posted on March 13, 2008 by Jonathan H

Have you ever tried to advertise in the Phone Book or Yellow Pages?

You’ll know it’s incredibly expensive, because they claim such blanket coverage.

And yet, more than half of all Yellow Pages and Phone Books remain unopened. All that processed paper, all those chemicals, all that delivery cost.

Who uses them these days? Directory enquiries are now free again, almost everyone has access to a free directory via a computer, so why bother dumping a couple of kilos of carbon footprint on my door every year?

I rang them and said that I not only didn’t want them (same as I said last year), but that I wanted it to be noted that there was one less copy in print. How could I note that? Apparently, I can’t!

If anyone knows of a campaign to get BT and Yell to have the phone book and YP as opt-in only, I’d love to know. Comment form below!

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  • risi13
    Apparently there's no way to get BT and Yell to have the phone book and YP as opt-in only, but you shouldn't worry because it's only a matter of time until they'll give up the print for the Internet Yellow Pages. It's faster, cheaper, it has a wider audience, not to mention it saves so many trees.
  • saynotophonebooks
    Say No to Phonebooks is a national campaign in the UK calling on government to reduce environmental impact of unwanted phonebooks by establishing an opt-in system for receiving phonebooks.

    To achieve our goals we are asking UK citizens to sign up to an e-petition on the Downing Street website demanding and opt-in system - http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/NoPhonebooks/

    Independent research has shown that 70% of the UK population would support an opt-in system and initial financial estimates indicate this could save councils up to £7.5 million a year

    192.com is working in partnership with environmental charity, Global Action Plan and supported by Hammersmith & Fulham Council.

    A viral video has been produced and is available upon request.

    Dick Strawbridge, Its Not Easy Being Green and environmental campaigner is also fully supporting the campaign.

    With enough votes, we will challenge the government to change BT’s obligation to produce a phonebook for every household in the UK and to establish a centralised opt-in system for phonebooks

    For more information go to www.saynotophonebooks.org

    Key Information
    • It is estimated that this could cost councils as much as £7.5 million a year
    • 25 million households delivered three phone books each year equalling 62,000 tons of annual waste - enough to cover Hyde Park twice
    • In the production process alone this wastes about:
    o 680,000 barrels of oil – The annual consumption of 66,758 people
    o 248 Million Kilowatts of electricity – This would power 59,047 homes for a year
    o 2 Billion litres of water – Enough to fill 800 Olympic swimming pools
    • From production to recycling, 62,000 tons of phonebooks equates to 79,360 metric tonnes of wasted carbon emissions!
  • Dom
    Have a look at www.saynotophonebooks.org and sign their petition
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