I retuned home this evening to find two phone books on my porch. Have you heard of the interwebs? I have tubes… I haven’t used a phone book in years. I don’t even have a home phone. I don’t know what bothers me more; the fact the phone company keeps printing these things to justify their reach to advertisers or the fact that they are killing so many trees unnecessarily.
Photo courtesy Matt Sheppard
Is there a way to have the phone company stop?
UPDATED : How to stop getting phone books!
Thanks for the link Alli!
You can get the phone company to stop sending you phone books by clicking here. I did it.
Here are some crazy facts about phone books:
- How many directories are printed annually in the United States? 540 Million
- What is the average weight of the directories? 3.62 pounds
- How much is the directory industry worth to the telephone companies in the United States? $13.58B
- How much is the directory industry worth worldwide? $26B
- How many fully developed trees are needed to make a ton of paper? 24 trees
- How many gallons of oil are needed to produce a ton of paper? 380 gallons
- How many cubic yards of waste is taken up by a ton of paper? 3 cubic yards
- How many gallons of water are needed to produce a ton of paper? 7,000 gallons
- How many kilowatts of energy are needed to produce a ton of paper? 4,000
- How many directories are printed for EVERY man, woman, and child in the United States? 1.79 books per person
So strange. I saw this link just today. http://fivepercent.us/2008/11/21/stop-the-yellow-pages-from-landing-thud-on-your-doorstep/
Thanks Alli! I updated the post with a direct link to the form. I filled it out myself, I hope this is the last phone book I see.
There’s actually a country in Europe that is completely paperless. They do everything online, even signing things and voting.
They get to cast their votes and change it as often as they like until the deadline. Kinda cool!
@Steven-Sanders:
That’s cool. What is the name of the country?
OMG, you and me BOTH! I am so sick of getting these on my porch. Thanks for the link Ted and Alli. I’m all signed up now.
I just moved in to a new house in College Park and was complaining because there was four phone books on the front porch! I use the internet, Cha Cha or text Google for phone numbers… not the phone book! That is old school! I promptly threw the phone books in the trash when I moved in. Thanks for the link, I signed up!
[…] Nov 10th, 2009 by Ted Murphy in marketing Last November I wrote a blog post titled Stop leaving me phone books. In it I explained that I haven’t had a home phone in (5) years, yet I continue to get phone […]
@shintay_215 you got ppl in that phone book I know u do lol