Phone Numbers
A Riddle: What’s 4,527 pages and keeps landing at our Door? Here’s another: Why?
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Letters to the Editor • Inbox5 comments
 Weight, Weight, don’t sell me |
[January 16th, 2008]
They’re big, they’re heavy and they take up a lot of space near your phone. If you still even have a land line.
And in the Internet age, with Aunt Martha’s phone number at your Googling fingertips, those weighty space-eaters known as phone books seem like un-green antiques every time they arrive unsolicited.
“It’s a waste,” says Gerik Kransky, chair of building environmental communities at the Sierra Club. “It should be illegal to leave that much paper on someone’s doorstep without asking permission.”
The phone books, which got delivered to our doorsteps last month, do have their defenders. Jim Long, a longtime local advocate for the community-pages section known as the Blue Pages, says the phone book remains just as necessary—and useful—as in the pre-Google age. Long says easy access to the Blue Pages’ listings related to civic government, public transportation, regional maps and other public entities are “important for the free flow of information.”
“The phone book is a tool for democracy,” Long says.
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Long and Peter Larmey, manager of external communications at R.H. Donnelley, the company that publishes Dex directory, both note that older people aren’t as Internet-savvy as younger generations and are more likely to use phone books.
OK. But here are some other numbers to consider from the recent Dex delivery sure to make you dial Aunt Martha:
How many phone books in one delivery: 3
How many pages in the three phone books: 4,527
Weight of all three when stacked: 6 inches
How much all three weigh: 10.5 lbs.
The number of Qwest Dex customers in Multnomah County: about 126,455
The total number of phone books delivered last year in Multnomah County: 379,365
The number of trees this is equivalent to, according to Portland State University’s “recycling facts” website (pdx.edu/sustainability/pr_recycling_facts.html): 49,779
These phone books would stretch for: 11.97 miles
We received two bags of phone books, plus a tiny book from a rival to Dex, in the last month. Would it kill them to start charging a few bucks a year for the things?
Not only did we get a those 4,527 pages dropped on our doorstep without our consent, but then someone called us to make sure we got our phone books. Yes, thanks, and we've already put them out at the curb with the rest of our recycling. What a waste! I would love to be able to do something to prevent this in the future, short of lobbing the things back at the delivery person, should I ever catch them (don't think I wouldn't!). Are there any anti-phonebook movements out there? Petitions? Any recommendations?
No thank you, I really do NOT want ANY of the telephone books. I use the internet to look up any numbers I want/need. I haven't cracked a traditional phone book in probably a half dozen years. There really DOES need to be an "opt out" for these things. Couldn't they be left in mass at a convenient drop-off spot (e.g. grocery store, mall, etc.) so the people that DO want them can still get them, but the rest of us don't have to deal with the behemoths?
And while we're at it, can we ban the glossy (read: less recyclable) flyers and coupons we get every single week advertising either cheap pizza / junk food, bedroom furnishings, or cable service.
Maybe it's time for a class action lawsuit demanding that these companies either stop sending coupons out, or pay for our trash service?
I often feel plagued by these books myself...especially since you receive them 3-4 times per year, and depending on where you live you will potentially get them from 2-3 different companies at a time. I would love to see an initiative to return these books to their companies...we choose 1 day out of the year and take all of them to the closest mall (as they all seem to have cellular outlets in them) and drop them off with their respective companies. It seems only fair that we are able to distribute them on their doorsteps as well without repercussions.
LOL dpie... I stopped getting Oregonian "sample" subscriptions this way - I found the distributor they were coming from, gathered up about two weeks' of unsolicited newspapers, and put them at their front door, with a note that I expected not to see them or any others at my front door again. Problem solved!
I have a land line, dial-up internet, and... yes, I still use the printed phone book (and I'm in my 20s). What I can't stand though are the other independent ones that seem to come out six months or so after the Dex book and the listings are about 6 to 9 months behind the more or less official one! To recycling those go.
The missing part is that the online versions of Qwest's yellow pages are almost completely unusable.
It has the worst search facilities I've ever seen, and there is no way to simply browse thru a category with it's ads, as one does when searching for a plumber. It is really offal...
I don't mind getting the book from my own service, but all those other books from companies I've never heard about are ridiculous. There should be an ordinance against that.
phone books and even newspapers should have a deposit return to pay for collection and recycling
Phonebooks are still relevant because they list companies alphabetically. Onlne phone directories charge businesses more to appear on the internet site and even more to appear towards the top of search results. Instead of getting a complete listing of businesses, you get a list of businesses that forked over extra cash to be apart of the online directory. We do get an excessive amount of phonebooks delivered, but even in this technological age they are still an essential resource to have.
Essential + Never Used = Non-essential.
People should be able to opt out. Regarless, we don't need 3 sets from 3 different companies - or more.
It's just an ad gimmick for some to print these and drop them at our door. If I hear them coming up the walk I go out and refuse delivery.
To think of the waste in paper and in processing . . . the ink . . . the electricity . . . fuel for delivery, etc.
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Maybe we should start a service collecting all the unwanted phone books in the metro area and dropping them off in the R.H. Donnelly parking lot. They drop them, unsolicited on our doorstep so we drop them back on their's.
search kn/ sri group. they are the nielson rating for yellowpages. Usage is down a little since the internet. The phone company is aware that times are changing and they are changing with them. yellowpages.com recieved more local searches than google for the last few months. that is where they are going. but not in our lifetime.
marc - Usage is down a little since the internet? I guess gas prices are up a little since 1965. The Yellow Pages are getting killed. Have you seen their stock prices? Usage is down. Opt out organizations have been created (www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org). Legislation is being proposed and/or pending in states to stop the unsolicited delivery practice. Recycling is great but how about not getting them (if I do not want one) and I don't have to worry about recycling.
I have good news on this I used the services of this is myjunktree and was able to stop the delivery of the phone books to my home. It was fast and easy. They also stopped all the credit card offers, and catalogs i no longer wanted. I always took the phone books straight to the recycling bin with the rest of my junk mail. I don't recycle as much stuff anymore, but I stopped it before it gets to me and I think that is even better.
Thanks for this article! I have been wretching with disgust for years every time I see three or four phone books, usually twice per year from one company or the other, on my doorstep. I do not need a list of the phone numbers all umpteen thousand people that live in this area. You should be able to at least opt out of getting these things. And, if I need to contact a government agency, I look it up online, just like everything else.