by Anna Rodgers
on March 2nd, 2010
Who uses a phone book these days? I bet only a small percentage of people! We all pretty much have access to the Internet these days and find our numbers that way.
I remember last year, our building had a whole heap of phone books delivered, which none of us took, so they sat there for ages, not being used, then were thrown out into the bin! They were probably recycled but still, it was pointless them being made!
I am pleased to read the following information I was just sent!:
Yell reduces directory size as the LGA support an end to the phonebook ~
The ‘Say No To Phonebooks’ campaign, sponsored by 192.com, is claiming two victories this week with the Local Government Association (LGA) declaring ‘war on pointless phone directories’ and Yellow Pages announcing that its directories will be smaller in future.
With 7,700 signatures already obtained on the ‘Say No To Phonebooks’ Downing St e-petition, the LGA is calling on the public to opt-out of receiving phonebooks to reduce the £7.5 million that’s spent on their collection and disposal. Tax payers and local government are making a stand against this illegitimate waste of council funds.
At the same time, Yellow Pages has announced a change to its directories, the most significant in 40 years, which will shrink the directory five centimetres in height and four centimetres in width, whilst retaining the same number of pages. The reduction in size has no doubt come about as a response to public disquiet about the environmental impact that phonebooks have.
This should reduce the annual waste produced by Yellow Pages directories by a third*, however, independent research indicates that 41% of households no longer use printed directories at all**. If just this 41% were to no longer automatically receive phonebooks it would save 25,420 tonnes of annual waste that currently needs to be managed by local councils. This is almost four times the saving of Yell’s directory resize and therefore would be significantly more beneficial to the environment and the tax payer, without any impact to consumers. These figures don’t take into account the energy, oil and water that are wasted in the production, delivery and recycling process.
For this reason, ‘Say No To Phonebooks’ campaigners believe Yell and the LGA haven’t gone far enough and maintain that all printed directories, including those from Yell, BT and Thomson Local, should be available on request and not delivered automatically.
Furthermore, Yell has claimed that the new size of its directories will make them small enough to fit through letter boxes. If this is the case, ‘Say No To Phonebooks’ campaigners would like clarification as to whether Yell will respect ‘No Junk Mail’ stickers on letter boxes, something that it seems to currently ignore.
Dominic Blackburn, Product Director, 192.com said, “We are finally starting to see directories reluctantly take notice of the ‘Say No To Phonebooks’ campaign particularly as local government weighs in on the debate. However, we must not to be placated by piecemeal moves towards a more environmentally friendly solution. People need to make their voice heard and sign the Downing St e-petition against phonebooks so that we can get the outdated system changed once and for all”.
Those that believe that a government trying to reduce unnecessary waste and energy consumption should start with the millions of unwanted phonebooks that are delivered each year should sign the e-petition on the Downing St website (http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/NoPhonebooks/ ) before the 31st March 2010.
Campaign supporters can also follow activity on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Find out more at www.saynotophonebooks.org.