6.18.2008

How to opt out of phonebook deliveries

With aggravating frequency and on a timeline I don't understand, a bagged block of Yellow Pages is delivered to my house. I didn't ask for it and, except for the three-incher propping up my laptop right now, I don't use it. Turns out I'm not alone. Ed Kohler writes that 85 percent of these un-asked-for deliveries end up in the garbage, not in recycling bins, and oftentimes in foreclosure-struck neighborhoods like mine they're a welcome sign to copper thieves looking for vacant homes. Thankfully, there's a solution: Opt out.

2 comments:

kenc said...

With all due respect, Ed doesn't know what he's talking about. If 85% of the books when straight to the garbage there is no way advertisers would be seeing the 14 billion calls they get annually from those directories, the books would be taking up far more than the 0.3% of landfill waste stream that they are now, and paper producers would have far more material to use in recycling instead of the shortage they often encounter now

Paul Schmelzer said...

My bad; it's the Minneapolis Star Tribune who reported the 85%. Ed just compiled a variety of resources. Go read 'em!