Phone Book Recycling

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Normally, I don’t post on the weekend, but I couldn’t let America Recycles Day (today, November 15th!) pass us by without acknowledging it. This event, created by the National Recycling Coalition in 2005, is supposed to remind Americans of the importance of recycling and provide a refresher course on the do’s and don’ts of recycling.

I couldn’t help but think of the importance of recycling two weeks ago, when two new sets of phone books showed up on my door step. (Actually, they showed up in plastic bags at the base of my driveway. I’ve already reused the plastic bags for cleaning up after my dog.)

I’d written in the past (actually, almost exactly one year ago) about my frustration at not being able to opt-out of receiving phone books so I can stop the phone books from showing up at my home. I also wrote about what great kindling phone books make, in case you’re wondering what you can do with your extra phone books, especially since not all recyclers take them.

Instead of just burning up this time about phone books, I decided to do some investigating about how one might go about either opting out of phone book delivery and/or figuring out the most efficient way to ensure that phone books get recycled.

For starters, I guess the best way to avoid getting phone books is to cut your landline all together. (They don’t send phone books to wireless customers, do they?) Considering we went down to one phone line only this summer–and there is only one phone number for us listed in the phone book–I’m not quite sure why we received two phone books. Nonetheless, I’m sure that many of my friends who don’t even have landlines don’t have this phone book problem.

Next, if cutting the landline isn’t in your plans, you can find out if you have local options for recycling phone books. I know, for example, that the Abitibi Paper Retriever dumpsters that our school district uses to collect recyclable paper and fund-raise for the schools does not accept phone books–it says so right on the outside of the dumpster. But I believe my curbside recycling program does.

You can also see if there are any local promotions going on that involve phone book recycling. I just found out about a Maryland program called “Recycle As You Shop,” which the Yellow Pages Association partially sponsors. It encourages residents to recycle phone books when they visit certain stores; in response, they’ll get a discount coupon to that store.

Speaking of the Yellow Pages, they have a search box on the Yellowpages.com website on how and where to recycle phone books. Since this site is affiliated with Keep America Beautiful (KAB), it will bring up the nearest KAB location that can take your phone books off of your hands for you. Or you can try a search on Earth 911, which will bring up actual recycling centers that take phone books.

A blogger over at Radiant Ideas recently wrote that she was able to call her local phone company and tell them that she didn’t want phone books anymore–but she doesn’t know yet if the request has stuck. “Most directories have an 800 number on the inside cover or within the 1st 2-3 pages that say, ‘To order a directory, call…’,” she told me in an email. “Just call that number and ask to be removed from their distribution list.”

I’ve got to be honest with you–the phone company doesn’t make it easy for you to find out which number to call to opt-out. Even with her specific advice, I searched in vain for a phone number to call but I found nothing.

A blogger at CommonCraft had some better luck–he found some real phone numbers people can call to stop phone book delivery through various phone companies nationwide; another person started a Facebook petition group called Stop the Drop to achieve the same. Even a professional organizer has gotten in on this idea. (Obviously this notion of unwanted phone books has touched a nerve with a lot of people.)

When I approached the company Idearc, which publishes my local phone book, they directed me to a “recycling” page that included lots of information on how phone books are made from recycled content and how you can put your phone book out with your curbside recycling if you no longer want or need it. There didn’t seem to be any useful information on this page, about opting-out of phone books, until I gave this paragraph a closer look:

“If you prefer to access local information through Superpages.com® on the Internet or Superpages Mobile on a cell phone or BlackBerry®, you can let us know by calling 1-800-888-8448.”

A ha. Could this be the holy grail number I’ve been looking for, kind of hidden in code, which will allow me to state my preferences to “access information through Superpages.com” and therefore stop receiving printed phone books? I’ll have to give this number a ring on Monday and see what happens.

Look, don’t get me wrong. I’m not against phone books per se–I still have fond memories of how a phone book at my grandparents’ house became my makeshift booster seat at the dinner table when I was very young. And there are times that I’ll leaf through a paper phone book the way I might leaf through a dictionary or an atlas–to fill the time and maybe uncover some useful information. What I’d like to see change, though, is the blanket distribution of phone books to households that clearly don’t want or need them. I hope that this post helps to serve as a wake-up call to the phone companies and the companies that print phone books.

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Filed under Earth 911, Yellow Pages, phone book recycling