For wasting trees.
Every year, five hundred and forty million phone directories are delivered in the United States. That’s nearly two books for every American. Nineteen million trees and 7.2 billion barrels of oil are used in making these over-issued directories.
The Reuben H. Donnelley Company claims that it published the first classified telephone directory for the Chicago area around 1886. The phone book was a great tool for a long time, but most of us have moved on. Unless you need a booster seat, or you are doing experiments on MythBusters, they are a complete waste of trees.
Thanks to advertisements, the publishers of these nearly obsolete directories are making $14 billion yearly in the U.S. Even if the phone book becomes obsolete, these companies will surely fight hard to keep them in circulation, because they account for 97 percent of their revenues. Only 3 percent comes from online directories.
When was the last time you actually looked up a phone number in a phone book? If you are like me, it has been years! Our world has rapidly transformed, and we use digital directories now. But for some Americans, old habits die hard. It’s fine if they want to send an old-timer his big phone index, but I don’t need mine anymore. So STOP sending it to me!
There is a number to call to stop the delivery of the useless yellow book. I called it and opted out, but it didn’t work. They still send me two. If you like, call them to see if you can get them to stop your delivery. Hopefully you get better results. In the meantime, here are some uses for unwanted phone books: recycle it, use it as a kindling for a fireplace or campfire, shred it and use it on your garden to prevent weeds, ball it up and use it instead of peanuts for packing, make it into papier-mâché, or use it for bra stuffing to save on costly surgery.