Q&A: Stopping phone book deliveries

Your eco-questions, answered.

Question: I can't stand the waste of the phone books. I get 4-6 every year and for no reason. I live in Sherman Oaks. It happens to everybody here. They all end up in the garbage. This is about 8 lbs per book -- which are pure junk mail. Why do i need 6 of them? I don't even want one. What a waste. Do you know how an end can be put to this waste? Thanks, Dave

Answer: Halting phone book deliveries is very difficult, I'm afraid -- especially if you're getting 4-6 every year. Basically, you need to call each phone book company and ask them to take you off the list -- which means dealing with a number of customer service reps, some of whom may be ill informed on the procedures they need to take to get you off the list.

Even if you went through the trouble to do this with all 4-6 phone book companies, you may still get more phone books. Why? Phone book companies often hire independent contractors to make the deliveries, who may either have outdated address lists or who may just throw a book in front of each residence, lists be damned.

I actually tried to stop phone book deliveries to my place back in 2005 -- but then I moved shortly afterwards, so I'm not sure how much effect my efforts had. Now, I live in a sort of enclosed apartment complex, and I've discovered that most phone book delivery people only see the one house up front and leave just one phone book, thereby eliminating my phone book problem.

So my suggestion is this: If you live in a single-family home, and don't plan to move for a while, call the companies and ask to be removed from their lists. A tip: Call the number listed for ordering MORE phone books; it's unlikely you'll find one specifically dedicated to book refusals. Hopefully that'll take the deliveries down from 4-6 to 1-3.

Otherwise, try to focus your eco-energies on related, but more resolvable issues. For example, join the campaign for the Do Not Mail registry. Reduce other types of junk mail. And vow never to tell a company you found them via the  yellow pages. If businesses start to see that buying ads in phone books doesn't help their business, they'll stop advertising in them, thereby slowly starving out the paper phone book industry. 

In the meantime, you might find this post on one person's effort to stop phone book deliveries humorous. The ensuing comments are especially hilar.

Comments

[Kathy Price-Robinson]

I tacked a sign saying NO PHONE BOOKS on the post holding my mailbox, with an arrow pointing to the ground where the books are typically thrown, and the throwers indeed skip me.

I'd like to know why it's even legal for these great gobs of advertisements to be left on the side of the street. It these companies had to spend $5 mailing them, they would cease.

[Thomas]

I was disappointed in your filppant response to the phone book issue. It is not funny. This is a major problem and the culprit is the phone companies. Perhaps it is time for the PUCC to get the phone companies to put out a don't deliver book option.

[Steve]

60% of the telephone directories we receive do not come from phone companies. They come from independent publishers (in this lucrative and highly competitive industry).

In a typical southern California address, a resident will receive:
1. an AT&T Yellow Pages
2. a Verizon Yellow Pages
There might be a separate White Pages from whichever one of these is the local telephone company at that address (but in many areas it's bound in with the Yellow Pages.
3. a Yellow Book, which is published by the British company Yell Group.
4. a United Yellow Pages (a smaller, semi-local southern Cal. publisher, the last time I checked.)
5. another under a name similar to Local Community Yellow Pages. Many of these are now owned by Yell Group as well.

So, I count five, and three of them didn't even come from telephone companies. How does the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) fit into that picture?

[Harvey Mechanic]

It is not legal for any person to litter. However, if a company leaves unsolicited materials in your yard, then the recourse would be to first notify them, preferably in writing, and if they continued, you would be able to take them to small claims court for a claim called "nuisance". Perhaps someone would like to start a class action as the individual damage awards would be too small to make it worth each person's time in taking a small claims action.

[Patricia]

Thank God for phone books. Where else are you going to find a number for an emergency plumber when you really need one? If you rely on the Internet for all of your information, you're using up electricity ever time you look something up. That's not very green. The phone book doesn't need to be plugged in to work.

[Rod Folendorf]

If you can't stop them, at least you can recycle them.

[Calvin]

The phone books are a nuisance, a waste of resources and a burden on the trash pickup and recycling industry. Legislation at the state level is needed to stop the gratuitous phone book deliveries. Of course the yellow page advertizing and phone lobbies will fiercely oppose it.

[RamblDoc]

Phone Books thrown in the garbage ???
---------So, you throw unwanted 8-pound phone books in the garbage ?
---------Ever hear of Re-cycling ??
Here in backward northern New England, we recycle, curbside, all paper, cardboard trash. Unlimited quantiites. What a waste to put such a large amount of good clean paper recycle feestock into the garbage, to end up in a landfill. For shame.
Certainly, Thousand Oaks, California, cannot be so backward as to not have some way to recycle paper.

[David@The Good Human]

You cannot stop them....they are unstoppable - believe me.

[Matt Broder]

I want to compliment you for promoting consumer choice in what mail to receive. You have noted in the past the Mail Preference Service of the Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org), as well as some for-profit sites that will perform basically the same function for consumers.

However, the presence of these consumer-driven services is exactly why state or national "do not mail" registries are a bad idea. They take control out of consumers' hands and impose a blanket prohibition on direct mail solicitations. This anti-choice system will choke off small businesses that use the mail to grow, and make it much more expensive for nonprofits to raise money for their vital services to society.

And can we puh-lease stop spreading the urban legend that direct mail is killing trees. Paper and forest product companies in this country plant trees by the billions, specifically intending to harvest them later for paper production. It's why America has as much forest coverage today as we did two decades ago. Trees are a renewable resource.

Sincerely,

Matt Broder
Vice President, External Communications
Pitney Bowes Inc.
matthew.broder@pb.com

[Siel]

Matt -- Your assertion that simply having a registry will "take control out of consumers' hands" is ridiculous when consumer have to actually take the initiative to sign on to it.

As you can tell by this comment stream, most people feel that junk mail has taken the control OUT of their hands. If they want to keep getting the crap, they can simply just not sign on to the registry.

And your assertion that cutting down trees to create junk mail most people don't want the stuff is actually good for the environment is just hilarious. Let the trees grow old and prosper --

[scott zitter]

i get tired off people griping about the phone book deliveries i work for dda which deliveries the phone books isnt the anything else to worry about waste look at our country wasting money in forgein country jobs lost to china and ia see people complain for being dumped by mail boxes i walk about 3 to 5 mileas a day delivering them and i would appericate if people wont complain about them people say what a waste but they are drivibg big suv that suck the gas down i have chase me down and threated me over the phone book

[Kcpc]

Consumers can now “opt out” of receiving telephone books at www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org. This organization will contact the publishers and inform them to stop delivering books. This is a free service for consumers. www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org is working with state and local governments on ordinances concerning the delivery of unsolicited telephone books. www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org is not against the telephone books but against the delivery of 4 to 5 pounds of paper on people’s door step 5 to 6 times per year and being told it is our responsible to recycle something we did not ask for. If we need a book we will call. Otherwise I “opt out” from receiving it. Here are phone numbers of the publishers if you would like to call them instead: The directory publishers listed make it possible for you to stop receiving their books, but they don’t make it easy. None of the menu options includes “opting-out”. Follow the roadmap and you should get to a customer service representative who can help you.

— ATT/ Yellow Pages: 1-800-479-2977
— Verizon: 800-555-4833, press 4, then 5, then 2
— DEX: 1-877-243-8339, press 2
— Yellow Book: 1-800-929-3556, press 2

[Marc]

I work in Michigan as a rep for yellowpages. The company is aware of the waste and they have created new positions to make the public aware of the benefits to recycling the phone books. I would like to see one book per area. However the government frowns on a monopoly. If we could find a way to regulate how many competitors are allowed to print books you would see a major decrease in books delivered. Remenber that the phone book is a free service to consumers and is still used by 88% of the population yearly. I know, you believe that you can find what you need on the internet. But keep in mind that only 10 to 15 percent of small to medium businesses advertise on line. Try to find a local plumber to repair your leaking pipe at 2 am with out using the phone book. I have way too many customers that rely on the book for their only source for new and current customers.

[Mark Elliot]

Thanks for this helpful information. I have taken advantage of the information here and asked to be removed from these distribution lists. But I fear other action will need to be taken to rein in these polluters. In my section of Los Angeles, the yellow book arrives in - what else - a big yellow PLASTIC bag - adding injury to insult. Could this mean a few million extra plastic bags in our dumps? You bet. Take action and stop these toxic polluters - or ask your elected representatives to stop it for us by outlawing useless plastic bags. I mean, how often has a grocery bagger put a single-item that comes in a bag...in another bag? Insanity.
Thanks for the blog!

[Andrew Gold]

KCPC - Great info on the link to the opt out site - www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org. I liked the ideas that local governments are proposing to attack this issue. I would think the industry would just go to a distribution model where they drop off the books at the local grocery store. If I need one I will pick it up. Also, they (the industry) need to have a bin to collect the old books. Just leaving them on my front door is crazy.